@koolman, you can choose any specific configuration you like to be the "ordered" configuration however over time the system will move away from this configuration and thus become "disordered"
@koolman A fast particle has more "phase space" of possible velocity vectors that it can live in than a slow particle. More indistinguishable possibilities == more entropy
@koolman If your system can evolve either to a lower-entropy state or to a higher-entropy state, the higher-entropy state is overwhelmingly more likely
When you buy a new pack of playing cards and open it, usually the cards are sorted: first spades, ace, two, three, ... king, then each of the other suits.
@koolman In reversible processes, the reaction can proceed in either direction. I have an example, but to tell you about it I have to correct an error in the image you posted earlier
Your image says that S(gas) >> S(liquid) > S(solid), which is a good way to think about things, but an oversimplification.
That suggests there's some intrinsic entropy to each of those phases that you can measure. But actually, the entropy associated with each phase depends on its temperature.
Ok, @koolman here goes: Assume that ice has a lower entropy (more ordered) state than water. Given that entropy never decreases, how is it possible that water can freeze to ice?
@koolman the solution is, is that when water turns to ice, it looses heat to the outside world. Thus the outside world is gaining entropy while the water is losing it
Mathematically a vector field, $\vec{F}$, is conservative if:
$$\oint_{\gamma} (\vec{F}.d\vec{l})=0$$
Physically, the integral is the same as the work done by a force $\vec{F}$ on a body in a closed path. I intend to demonstrate mathematically that a conservative force assumes a scalar potentia...
I read in my chemistry book that the entropy change of a system's surroundings is path dependent while the entropy of the system is state dependent. I don't understand what it means by this. How can entropy be dependent on two different things?
Also, the expression is automatically moved under the limit in display mode, and you shouldn't do that inline because it makes the column absurdly wide
@heather Well, if both compile, then there's nothing to fix
@heather I don't agree that they're meta tags, they do relate to the content in the question. I wouldn't find a similar tag like "theoretical-physics" particularly useful, but that's because the volume of experimental questions we get is rather low, so it's nice for the people interested in them to be able to track them with a single tag when they appear.
I'm not sure having a tag like experimental-physics and nothing else on the question tells you very much, just like theoretical-physics - you have no clue what the question is actually about.
Yeah, meta tags are things like homework-and-exercises or soft-question which describe the type of question, rather than the subject which it asks about
@heather It's a rare question where the tags actually tell you what the question is about.
Well, I have trouble seeing what exactly it's supposed to mean. Can you give me an experimental-physics question that should be tagged neither of those two tags? Is it just a tag for everything that's not about technoligy?
The tag description is garbage and doesn't tell me anything
well, my thought would be the technology tag would go on something with a specific technology to use, like "do I need a turbo-molecular pump or a oil pump for this experiment", the technique tag would go on something about implementing a specific technique, almost like recreating an experiment or experiment design, and the overall tag might go on something like analyzing whether results from an experiment make sense, or something along those lines
@heather I'm not sure I'd tag a question about analyzing the result as "experimental-physics" in the first place, but it depends on how exactly the question is written. (E.g. "I have this data and want to fit this function to it" is a question about analysing experimental results, but I'm not sure what's what the tag is intended for)
I assume that those signs indicate the direction of rotation. If that is true, then I am going to bed angrily becaz I will have to commit those to memory.
"The h bar" is a pun on it being like a bar (people gather there), and for physicists. "The Periodic Table" is a pun about it being like a table (people gather there), and for chemists.
Mathematically a vector field, $\vec{F}$, is conservative if:
$$\oint_{\gamma} (\vec{F}.d\vec{l})=0$$
Physically, the integral is the same as the work done by a force $\vec{F}$ on a body in a closed path. I intend to demonstrate mathematically that a conservative force assumes a scalar potentia...
I read in my chemistry book that the entropy change of a system's surroundings is path dependent while the entropy of the system is state dependent. I don't understand what it means by this. How can entropy be dependent on two different things?
