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9.7 The Second Law of Thermodynamics

Part of Thermodynamics in AP® Physics 2: Algebra-Based. Read the opening section, then create a free account for the full interactive lesson, practice, and progress tracking.

Entropy

The second law of thermodynamics introduces a fundamental idea in the universe, entropy. Entropy is the dispersion of energy. Lower entropy means that the energy in a system is very condensed whilst higher entropy means that a system’s energy is very spread out and dispersed. Another interpretation of entropy is as chaos. Low entropy means a system is very ordered whilst a high entropy means a system is very disordered and chaotic.

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