Thanks in advance, I wants to understand the concept and not just know the equations!
In: 8
We have a Chemist’s and a Physicist’s answers. I’ll try to give the Engineer’s answer:
Internal energy only refers to the heat energy content of a system. Enthalpy is the total energy content of the system which is the internal energy + the work the system could perform by expanding and pushing the surrounding environment out of the way due to pressure. It’s the internal heat energy + potential mechanical work.
For Entropy: A machine does a task. The task requires a transfer of a certain amount of energy to feed the machine. Depending on how well built the machine is designed and maintained it might do the task well or poorly. That is, do alot of work or a little for that amount of energy. Entropy tells you how much more work or energy you could have gotten out of your machine if you were as efficient as possible. Entropy is that amount of energy divided by the temperature of the space around the machine. Now replace “machine” with “any volume of space” and “task” with “any interaction at all between the space and its surroundings.”
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