contestada

Suppose we have two identical boxes
of matter, A and B, that are in thermal contact
but cannot exchange materials. They come to
thermal equilibrium. System 1 consists of box A
alone, while system 2 consists of both boxes A
and B. What can you say about the entropy of
the two systems?
A. The entropy of system 2 is twice as high as that of
system 1.
B. The entropy of system 2 is a lot more than twice as
high compared to system 1.
C. The number of microstates of system 2 is twice as high
as those of system 1.
D. The number of microstates of system 2 is a lot more
than twice as high as those of system 1.
E. You can’t tell anything about the comparative entropy
of the two systems without more information.

Respuesta :

onyebuchinnaji

Answer:

(C) The number of microstates of system 2 is twice as high as those of system 1.

Explanation:

In thermal contact, energy is exchanged between the two systems until thermal equilibrium is reached.

In thermal equilibrium, the temperature of system one is always equal to temperature of system two.

Also from second law of thermodynamic;

The entropy of an isolated system never decreases: in equilibrium, the entropy stays the same; otherwise the entropy increases until equilibrium is reached.

Since the two boxes are in thermal equilibrium, the entropy of system 1 is equal to the entropy of system 2.

However, a microstate is a specific microscopic configuration of a thermodynamic system that the system may occupy with a certain probability in the course of its thermal fluctuations.

Since system 2 = twice system 1

Then, microscopic configuration of system 2 is equal to twice microscopic configuration of system 1.

P₂ (Box(A+B))= P₁(2A), since the two boxes are identical.

Therefore, the number of microstates of system 2 is twice as high as those of system 1.

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