Entropy

[Alison Shamoony 1G]

Does someone mind explaining entropy to me and the equation for degeneracy, how it works etc?

[Lizze Cardoso 2I]

Degeneracy is the number of ways to achieve a particular energy state, denoted by W for all the microstates of a system. Now entropy is the measure of the disorder of a system. The Boltzmann equation, S=KBlnW, is used to calculate entropy through the number of microstates, W, in a more simplified manner. Hope this helps!

[Saba Honarvar 3A]

Entropy is the unavailability of a system's thermal energy for conversion into mechanical work, often interpreted as the degree of disorder or randomness in the system. Degenracy however is the total number of different states of the same energy. The Boltzmann equation, S=KBlnW, is also used to calculate entropy through the number of microstates in a system.

[Ananya_2L]

Hello!

Degeneracy is the number of different ways that energy can exist. Degeneracy and entropy are directly related. The higher the entropy, there are potentially more ways for energy to be, and hence, degeneracy is increased as well.

The equation S=klnW is used to calculate statistical entropy (the entropy associated with large numbers of atoms and molecules). The equation delta S=q/T is used to calculate the thermodynamic entropy.

For these equations, increasing the temperature or volume would cause an increase in entropy because it would make more energy levels available to the molecules, so the molecules have more microstates that they can occupy.

[Jasmine Catalan 1H]

Hi, so entropy is the degree of disorder/ randomness a system may have. We calculate that with the equation S=KblnW. However degeneracy is the total number of different states that have the same energy. In regards to particles we calculate degeneracy with 2^n. n being the number of particles.

[Isabel Pon 1D]

Entropy is the amount of disorder within a system. Degeneracy is the number of ways of achieving a given energy state. The Boltzmann equation shows the relationship between degeneracy (W) and entropy (S). The equation is S=KBlnW.

[Nicole Nakama 1A]

To add on, not only is entropy a measure of disorder, but it also is what describes how a system changes. It is calculated through the equation S = Kb x lnW, in which W is not work in this case, but degeneracy. Degeneracy is the number of different molecule positions that are possible while maintaining the given energy state. Degeneracy can be calculated by W = X^n, with X being the number of different states or orientations our molecules can be in and n being the number of particles.

(Side note: if you are given the number of moles, multiply that by Avogadro's Number to get the number of particles)

When you find W, then you can plug that back into your entropy equation and take the natural log of that value times Boltzmann's constant (Kb) in order to find entropy (S). Hope this helps!