If melting of ice into water increases entropy, then does its freezing due to naturally occurring cold temperatures decrease the entropy? And does the entropy of the ice decrease or that of the whole Universe too? If it does not in case of the Universe, then why?

Question

If melting of ice into water increases entropy, then does its freezing due to naturally occurring cold temperatures decrease the entropy? And does the entropy of the ice decrease or that of the whole Universe too? If it does not in case of the Universe, then why?

In: 9

Answer 1

Water freezes by releasing heat to the outside world. The single block of ice becomes colder by heating the outside universe a bit. The universe outside of the block of ice gains more entropy than what’s lost by the block of ice so, overall, the entropy increases in the whole universe.