Question

A system is at thermodynamic equilibrium when its entropy has decreased to a minimum True or False

Answer 1

Answer: False.

Explanation:

Thermodynamics describes the states of thermodynamic equilibrium at the macroscopic level. The states of equilibrium are studied and defined by means of extensive magnitudes such as internal energy, entropy, volume or molar composition of the system, or by means of non-extensive magnitudes derived from the previous ones such as temperature, pressure and chemical potential.

Thermodynamics deals with the processes of heat transfer, which is one of the forms of energy and how one can work with it. This area describes how matter in any of its phases (solid, liquid, gas) is transformed. So from a macroscopic point of view of matter, it studies how it reacts to changes in its volume, pressure and temperature, among other magnitudes. Thermodynamics is based on four main laws:

• Thermodynamic equilibrium (or zero law)
• The principle of conservation of energy (first law)
• The temporary increase of entropy (second law)
• The impossibility of absolute zero (third law).

In thermodynamics, a system is said to be in a state of thermodynamic equilibrium if it is incapable of spontaneously experiencing any change of state or thermodynamic process when it is subjected to certain boundary conditions (the conditions imposed by its surroundings). For this purpose, it must be simultaneously in thermal equilibrium, mechanical equilibrium and chemical equilibrium.

Entropy (symbolized as S) is a physical magnitude for a thermodynamic system in equilibrium. It measures the number of micro states compatible with the macro state of equilibrium, it can also be said that it measures the degree of organization of the system, or that it is the reason for an increase in internal energy versus an increase in temperature of the thermodynamic system.

Entropy, in an isolated system, grows in the course of a naturally occurring process. A consequence of the second law of thermodynamics is that in a state of equilibrium, entropy has a maximum value in the system that will correspond to a minimum in one of the thermodynamic potentials.