Introduction
Early man relied on fire for the luxuries of light, heat and cooking. Today, all these luxuries are taken for granted. At the flick of a switch, a push of a button or the turn of a knob, instant power is delivered to us. Mother Nature produces the natural renewable resources that can used to generate electricity and heat such as ocean tides, natural winds and the sun. A variety of these resources are finite including fossil fuels such as coal and oil. For the 21st century, coal, gas and oil are no longer recommended as we’re moving towards infinite renewable resources such as solar and wind power. The electricity and heat energy derived from these resources is used in our homes for every day uses such as cooking, lighting, air conditioning, refrigeration etc (see …show more content…
For instance if a copper wire is heated and plunged into a beaker full of cold water, the particles in the wire will transfer to the water until thermal equilibrium is reached. At the center of the second law of thermodynamics is a property of thermodynamic systems called entropy. Heat cannot spontaneously flow from a cold object (low entropy) to a hot object (high entropy) in a closed system because it would violate the expression: ∆S≥0
Entropy is a measure of the disorder in a system and it will always tend to stay the same or increase. When the temperature of an object increases, its entropy increases also, however when the temperature of an object decreases, the entropy decreases. The change in entropy is expressing using the equation: ∆S=Q/T where ∆S=change in entropy Q =heat added
Early man relied on fire for the luxuries of light, heat and cooking. Today, all these luxuries are taken for granted. At the flick of a switch, a push of a button or the turn of a knob, instant power is delivered to us. Mother Nature produces the natural renewable resources that can used to generate electricity and heat such as ocean tides, natural winds and the sun. A variety of these resources are finite including fossil fuels such as coal and oil. For the 21st century, coal, gas and oil are no longer recommended as we’re moving towards infinite renewable resources such as solar and wind power. The electricity and heat energy derived from these resources is used in our homes for every day uses such as cooking, lighting, air conditioning, refrigeration etc (see …show more content…
For instance if a copper wire is heated and plunged into a beaker full of cold water, the particles in the wire will transfer to the water until thermal equilibrium is reached. At the center of the second law of thermodynamics is a property of thermodynamic systems called entropy. Heat cannot spontaneously flow from a cold object (low entropy) to a hot object (high entropy) in a closed system because it would violate the expression: ∆S≥0
Entropy is a measure of the disorder in a system and it will always tend to stay the same or increase. When the temperature of an object increases, its entropy increases also, however when the temperature of an object decreases, the entropy decreases. The change in entropy is expressing using the equation: ∆S=Q/T where ∆S=change in entropy Q =heat added