01.3 Molecular Nature of Entropy

Molecular Nature of Entropy (uakron.edu, 5min) Entropy is often related to chaos or disorder, but it has a specific, mathematical definition in thermodynamics. There is nothing metaphysical about it. This very brief presentation introduces the conceptual basis of how the arrangements of molecules between boxes can be related to the flow of work energy, or lack thereof, depending on how the process is conducted. This conceptual basis is expanded in Section 4.2 to permit quantitative calculations of entropy changes based on molecular configurations.