Question

Living organisms increase in complexity as they grow, resulting in a decrease in the entropy of an organism. How does this relate to the second law of thermodynamics?
A) Living organisms do not obey the second law of thermodynamics, which states that entropy must increase with time.
B) Life obeys the second law of thermodynamics because the decrease in entropy as the organism grows is exactly balanced by an increase in the entropy of the universe.
C) As a consequence of growing, organisms cause a greater increase in entropy in their environment than the decrease in entropy associated with their growth.
D) Living organisms are able to transform energy into entropy.

Answer 1

The correct option is C.

The second law of thermodynamics states that the total entropy of an isolated system cannot decrease over time. Entropy refers to the degree of randomness in a system. There are two types of system, open and close system.  

Living organisms are examples of open system; this is because they exchange matter and energy with their environments.  As living organisms grow up and develop, the degree of entropy in their systems decrease, but this is balanced up by an increase in the entropy of their surrounding environments.  For instance, when a man is running, he is using up chemical energy he obtained from the food he eats. The chemical energy is converted into heat energy, which warms his body. The remaining heat energy gets dissipated into the environment and this increase the amount of entropy in the environment.