Physical Science Chpater 18
BYU Physical Science 100 terms.
Terms
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- Surroundings
- Everything outside what we have defined to be the system.
- Electrical Potential Energy
- Potential energy due to the relative positions of charged particles.
- Macroscopic Kinetic Energy
- The kinetic energy possessed by moving objects given by 1/2mass x (speed)2.
- Irreversible
- An process that goes in only one direction; its effects often cannot be undone. Most processes that occur in nature are this way.
- Entropy
- A quantitative measure of disorder. It increases as the disorder increases. It can be calculated mathematically from the probability of obtaining the system in its current state.
- Universe
- The combination of system plus surroundings.
- Law of Increasing Disorder
- Changes occurring in natural systems always proceed in such a way that the total amount of disorder in the universe is either unchanged or increased. If total disorder is increased, the process is irreversible. Also known as the Second Law of Thermodynamics.
- Reversible
- A reversible process goes both forward and backward at the same time. These types of processes are relatively rare in nature.
- System
- A small piece of the world around which we mentally draw a box and upon which we focus our attention. It may be a beaker containing an ice cube and warm water or a refrigerator or a living organism.
- Microscopic Kinetic Energy
- The kinetic energy associated with atomic and molecular motions. A stationary object can have this microscopic but not macroscopic kinetic energy.