This is reflected in the idea that a spontaneous change always results in the dispersal (spreading out) of energy (and also matter).Įntropy change measures the dispersal of energy: how much energy is spread out in a particular process, or how widely spread out it becomes (at a specific temperature). You see now how hot pans cooling and chemical reactions belong to the ‘how much' category where energy is being transferred. Coffee in cream and gas expansion and perfume in air are ‘how widely' processes where the initial energy of the molecules stay the same but the volume occupied by the molecules increases. You have probably heard the phrase “the ever expanding Universe”, although this phrase is often taken to mean our ever increasing knowledge of our Universe, it also is quite true that our Universe is expanding and this effect is entropic in nature. The Third Law of Thermodynamics is usually stated as a definition: the entropy of a perfect crystal of an element at the absolute zero of temperature is zero.
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