Second Law of Thermodynamics

HS Physics By Mr Mac

Thermodynamics is a study of heat and work. From this

study, a number of physical laws have been established.
The laws of thermodynamics can be observed in everyday
applications such as heat engines, refrigerators and many
others.
Thermodynamics jokes

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 Lesson Objectives
By the end of the lesson, students should be
able to understand
the concept of entropy that is central to the
2nd law of thermodynamics
how entropy is related to direction of heat
flow and efficiency of machines
heat flows from a region of higher
temperature to a region of lower temperature
no machine can be 100% efficient 3
Entropy
A measure or degree of disorder of a
system.
Instead of using the word “disorder”, you
can think of particles increasing in
molecular freedom.

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Entropy
Systems tend to change from a state of
low entropy to a state of higher entropy.
That is to say, if left to themselves,
systems tend to increase their entropy.

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Entropy
Gas 1 Gas 2 Gas 1 and 2

Highly
Disordered
ordered
state
state
The diagram above shows a box on the left, containing two pure gases
separated by a partition. When the partition is removed, the gases
mix and the position of the gas molecules become random. 6
 Entropy
Gas 1 Gas 2 Gas 1 and 2

Highly
ordered
state
x Disordered
state
If we started with the box on the right, containing the mixture of the
gases, it would almost impossible that at any later time, all the molecules
of Gas 1 would happen to move to the left side of the box and at the same
time, the molecules of Gas 2 would mover to the right side of the box.
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Entropy

A sugar cube dissolves

spontaneously in hot coffee,
but dissolved sugar never
precipitates out to form a
sugar cube?
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Entropy

Glassware breaks spontaneously

when it hits the floor. Yet you can’t
drop the broken pieces of glass and
have it form a graduated cylinder.
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Why is it that….

A parked new car left to itself will become junk

over time…..

The junk car

will never
become like
new over
time

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11
12
Entropy

Increasing Entropy

Solids Liquids Solutions Gases

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Entropy

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 The second law can be stated in
many forms…

• The total amount of disorder- the

total entropy of a system plus its
surroundings will never decrease.

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 Why is there a need for the
second law of thermodynamics?
• The first law states that total energy of an
isolated system remains constant; it is said to be
conserved over time
• Based on this description, Scenario 1 can change
to Scenario 2 and vice-versa. In both cases, the
first law of thermodynamics is maintained
because total energy is conserved
Scenario 1 Scenario 2

Gas 1 Gas 2 Gas 1 and 2 16

 Why is there a need for the
second law of thermodynamics?
• However we know that systems naturally progress
from order to disorder whereby the entropy increases
over time
• Therefore the second law is a general principle which
places constraint on the direction of change. It goes
beyond the limits imposed by the first law of
thermodynamics
low entropy high entropy
Scenario 1 Scenario 2

Gas 1 Gas 2 Gas 1 and 2 17

 Dave’s Hand

What are the

odds?

John’s Hand

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 John’s hand is one of a very select
group of hands called a straight flush.
Out of the 2.6 million possible hands,
there are only 40 straight flushes.
Dave has junk. There are over a
million hands that are junk.
In other words, there are very few
combinations of five cards that form a
straight flush, and very many
combinations that result in junk.
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Entropy is defined in terms of
microstates and macrostates.

Microstate Macrostate

John’s Hand 7 8 9 10 J Straight Flush

Dave’s Hand 4 8  7 3 K Junk

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The more microstates a
macrostate can have,
the higher its entropy.

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Hey, wake up loser. The law
of entropy says you’re
probably going to get junk.

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 Consider two tanks with 4 air
I molecules in one of them.

Microstates 23
I

II

Microstates 24
I

II This is the
most likely

III

Microstates 25
 And so it is with air molecules.
Considering the extremely large
number of molecules in a house for
example, the odds are
overwhelmingly high that the
molecules will spread out evenly.

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 Thermodynamics
Videos- 2nd law of thermodynamics (Part 1)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGDJO2M7RBg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=870y6GUKbwc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTtxlaeC9PY

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 The second law can be stated in
many forms…

• Heat can never pass spontaneously from a cold to a

hot body, it always flow from hot to cold. Heat
always flow from a region of higher temperature
to a region of lower temperature, never the other
way around.

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Thermal energy flows from hot to cold

When you touch a frozen

pizza with your hand,
thermal energy flows in
what direction?
©iStockphoto.com Hand → Pizza

When you touch a cooked

pizza with your hand,
thermal energy flows in
what direction?
©iStockphoto.com
Pizza → Hand
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Energy (heat) flows from the warm swimmer to the cold
ocean, never from the cold ocean to the warm swimmer.
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 2nd law of thermodynamics

This shows that energy is transferred from a region of

higher temperature to a region of lower temperature
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 The second law can be stated in
many forms…

• If you do work, if you use energy, if you convert it

from one form to another, you will lose some of it.
No machine can be 100% efficient. This lost
energy goes to increasing the disorder of the
Universe.

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Application of 2nd law of thermodynamics-
Heat Engines

Heat engine is a device that uses heat to produce useful

work. An example is the internal–combustion engine
in a car.

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 Heat Engines

Car Engine – Can you follow the motion of a piston around

the cycle when the mixture of gas and air explodes?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4W_NRHxekaY

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 Heat Engines

Through the cyclic process of the internal combustion

of the car engine, energy in the form of heat (QH) is
converted to useful work (W). The remainder is ejected
as exhaust heat (QC) into a low-temperature sink.

Hot reservoir Cold reservoir

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 Heat Engines

The second law of thermodynamics states that for any

cyclic heat engine, some exhaust heat (waste energy) is
always produced. It’s impossible to completely convert
heat into useful work.
QH = W + QC
Hot reservoir Cold reservoir
𝑾
Efficiency = X 100%
𝑸𝑯
𝑻𝑪
Efficiency = 1 -
𝑻𝑯
𝑸𝑪
Efficiency = 1 -
𝑸𝑯
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Heat Engines

Question
A heat engine draw 800J of heat from its high
temperature source and discards 450J of
exhaust heat into its cold-reservoir during
each cycle. Calculate
a) the amount of work performed by the engine
in each cycle,

b) efficiency of the engine.

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Heat Engines

Answer
a) QH = W + QC
W = QH - QC
= 800 – 450
= 350 J
𝑾
b) Efficiency = X 100%
𝑸𝑯
𝟑𝟓𝟎
= x 100%
𝟖𝟎𝟎
= 43.75%
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Heat Pumps

Heat pumps move thermal energy in the

opposite direction of spontaneous heat
transfer, by absorbing heat from a cold
space and releasing it to a warmer one. A
heat pump uses a small amount of
external power to accomplish the work of
transferring energy from the heat source
to the heat sink

Cold space/ Heat source

Warm space/heat sink

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 Heat Pumps

Heat pumps in refrigerator uses work to remove heat

energy. Work removes heat from cold reservoir to a heat
reservoir.
The diagram below shows the heat pump’s vapour-
compression refrigeration cycle. Can you follow the path on
the PV diagram?

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 Heat Pumps
• The working fluid, in its gaseous state, is pressurized and circulated through the
system by a compressor (4).
• The hot and highly pressurized vapour is cooled in a heat exchanger, called a
condenser (1), and condenses into a liquid.
• The condensed refrigerant then passes through a pressure-lowering expansion valve
(2).
• The low-pressure liquid refrigerant then enters another heat exchanger, the
evaporator (3), in which the fluid absorbs heat and boils.
• The refrigerant then returns to the compressor and the cycle is repeated
expansion valve

1
evaporator
condenser

2 4

3
compressor 41
 Thermodynamics
Videos- 2nd law of thermodynamics (Part 2)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHUwFuHuCdw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pu7g3uIG6Zo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDQgOvmSXCE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBd2zraOe2k

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Summary- 2nd Law of Thermodynamics

• The total amount of disorder- the total entropy of a

system plus its surroundings will never decrease.
• Heat can never pass spontaneously from a cold to a hot
body, it always flow from hot to cold. Heat always flow
from a region of higher temperature to a region of
lower temperature, never the other way around.
• If you do work, if you use energy, if you convert it from
one form to another, you will lose some of it. No machine
can be 100% efficient. This lost energy goes to
increasing the disorder of the Universe.

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