State Functions and Entropy
If Z is a state function then the balance of Z remains unchanged during a cyclic process:
- .
Entropy is a state function and is defined as
so that
- ,
then it is clear that for any cyclic process,
meaning that the net entropy change over a cycle is 0.
Read more about this topic: Thermodynamic Cycle
Famous quotes containing the words state, functions and/or entropy:
“The truth is, the whole administration under Roosevelt was demoralized by the system of dealing directly with subordinates. It was obviated in the State Department and the War Department under [Secretary of State Elihu] Root and me [Taft was the Secretary of War], because we simply ignored the interference and went on as we chose.... The subordinates gained nothing by his assumption of authority, but it was not so in the other departments.”
—William Howard Taft (1857–1930)
“Empirical science is apt to cloud the sight, and, by the very knowledge of functions and processes, to bereave the student of the manly contemplation of the whole.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Just as the constant increase of entropy is the basic law of the universe, so it is the basic law of life to be ever more highly structured and to struggle against entropy.”
—Václav Havel (b. 1936)