Which of the following processes results in an increase in entropy of the system?
a. A drop of ink spreading out when it is placed in water
b. Steam condensing into drops on windows
c. Constructing a building from loose bricks

Question

Which of the following processes results in an increase in entropy of the system?

a. A drop of ink spreading out when it is placed in water

b. Steam condensing into drops on windows

c. Constructing a building from loose bricks

Accepted Answer

Welcome back, everyone determine the system whose entropy is increasing. Recall that entropy describes the chaos or disorder of a system. And also recall that entropy is represented by the symbol s where we would have delta S represent entropy change. So a positive entropy change corresponds to an increase in entropy. Whereas a negative delta us or entropy change corresponds to a decrease in entropy. Let's look at statement A which says that making a toy house out of building blocks is our system. So if we have a single toy house, we have a more ordered state. Whereas if we have just our building blocks, we have a lot more disorder or a more disordered state. And because we're making a toy house from our building blocks, we're going from a disordered state to a ordered state as a toy house now. And so this will correspond to a negative entropy change, meaning that entropy decreases. So we would rule choice A out because we only want the choice where the system describes a increase in entropy moving onto choice B A drop of liquid dye spreads on the fabric. So if we have our liquid dye molecules spreading on the fabric, we get to a more disordered state of our liquid dye molecules. And so that will therefore correspond to a positive entropy change, meaning entropy is increasing. And so we would put a check mark by choice because it looks like it's describing a system where entropy increases. Looking at choice C we have ethanol condensation in a distillation flask recall that the process of condensation is going from a gaseous state to a liquid state. So it's describing a phase change from gas to liquid. And so we want to recall that as far as entropy, our gaseous state has the highest amount of entropy compared to our liquid physical state and are solid physical state has the lowest amount of entropy. So if our solid state has our lowest amount of entropy and our gaseous state has our highest amount of entropy will put parentheses here. That means ethanol condensation in a distillation flask where ethanol goes from a gaseous state to a liquid state would correspond to therefore a negative entropy change. And so therefore, entropy is decreasing. And we would rule out choice C choice D says none of the above, but we've already confirmed that choice B is the best choice which describes a system whose entropy is increasing. So B is going to be our final answer. I hope this made sense. And let us know if you have any questions

Which of the following processes results in an increase in entropy of the system?
a. A drop of ink spreading out when it is placed in water
b. Steam condensing into drops on windows
c. Constructing a building from loose bricks

Verified video answer for a similar problem:

Key Concepts

Entropy

Spontaneous Processes

Phase Changes