Entropy of a Irreversible Process

[Sirajbir Sodhi 2K]

Say you have a reversible version of a process and an irreversible version of the same process. Since entropy is a state function, the system will have the same entropy change for both processes. Yet, the total entropy of the irreversible process is greater than that of the reversible process. How is this possible if the system ends up with the same change in entropy for both processes? I understand that the change in the entropy of the surroundings is not the same for both processes, but why is that if the change in entropy of the system is the same?

[Justin Chu 1G]

This is because the total change in entropy is the sum of the change in the entropies of the system and the surroundings.

[Angela 1K]

I agree with Justin!

The total entropy is equal to the sum of the entropy of the system and the entropy of the surroundings. Thus, when one process has a higher entropy of the surroundings, it'll have a higher total entropy than the other.