Importance of Entropy

Three Laws of Thermodynamics

• Conservation of mass - energy                   Energy can neither be created or destroyed
• Law of Entropy                                         All spontaneous events act to increase total entropy
• Absolute Zero                                           Absolute zero is removal of all thermal molecular motion

The second law of thermodynamics states that in general the total entropy of any system will not decrease other than by increasing the entropy of some other system. Hence, in a system isolated from its environment, the entropy of that system will tend not to decrease. It follows that heat will not flow from a colder body to a hotter body without the application of work (the imposition of order) to the colder body.