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Understanding Spontaneous Processes in Thermodynamics

Thermodynamics-I Lecture 30 provided a review of the first law of thermodynamics and spontaneous processes. It explained that spontaneous processes occur without external influence and happen naturally. While simple processes have obvious heat and work flow directions, more complex processes can be difficult to predict how the system state will change spontaneously. The lecture also clarified that reversing a spontaneous process would not occur spontaneously on its own and does not violate the first law, requiring another law to help determine which processes are spontaneous.

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2 views4 pages

Understanding Spontaneous Processes in Thermodynamics

Thermodynamics-I Lecture 30 provided a review of the first law of thermodynamics and spontaneous processes. It explained that spontaneous processes occur without external influence and happen naturally. While simple processes have obvious heat and work flow directions, more complex processes can be difficult to predict how the system state will change spontaneously. The lecture also clarified that reversing a spontaneous process would not occur spontaneously on its own and does not violate the first law, requiring another law to help determine which processes are spontaneous.

Uploaded by

ghani
Copyright
© All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

ME 231

Thermodynamics-I

Lecture 30
Fall 2016
Review of 1st law of
Thermodynamics

2
Spontaneous Process
Spontaneously means without any external

influence, such as a source of heat or work.

These processes just happen all by themselves.

In simple processes, it is easy to tell direction of

heat flow and fall of weight.

But in more complicated processes, it is not always

easy to tell how the state of a system will change

spontaneously.
3
Reversing the Spontaneous Process
Do the reverse process will happen spontaneously?

No!Theinitial statescan be
restoredbutnotspontaneously.
Suppose if the reverse process occurs by any means.

Does it violate 1st Law of Thermodynamics?

No! Yet the reverse processes dont occur


spontaneously.

Anotherlawis needed to help


usunderstandand
predictwhichprocesseswill 4

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