Entropy

[Jasmeen Kaur 2D]

The professor mentioned in class that you can generalize that even when you are comparing complicated vs simple molecules like ethanol (l) versus helium (g), the gas phase will have the higher entropy. But I was looking at some questions, and I saw that C8H18(l) has higher molar entropy than CH4(g) and the reasoning was that because C8H18 was a larger molecule. I'm very confused, if someone could help! Is there a certain threshold on molecular complexity?

[Mia Chem14B]

Entropy is a measure of the number of possible microstates of a system, or in simpler terms, the disorder or randomness of a system. A larger molecule is able to have more disorder! Hope this helps :)

[Jasmeen Kaur 2D]

Entropy is a measure of the number of possible microstates of a system, or in simpler terms, the disorder or randomness of a system. A larger molecule is able to have more disorder! Hope this helps :)

But how do you know when it is more able to? The professor mentioned that mostly gases will have a higher entropy. How do you know that C8H18 has a higher molar entropy when it is a liquid and CH4 is a gas? How much larger does the molecule actually have to be so that the phases don't determine the higher molar entropy?