Second law of thermodynamics

[kate 2h]

The second law of thermodynamics says that a spontaneous process increases the entropy of the universe, but in an isolated system shouldn't it just increase the entropy of the system and not the surrounding environment?

[Tiffany Wang 3L]

I think increasing the entropy of a system increases the entropy of the universe because entropy of the universe is always increasing. In an isolated system, if the entropy of the system increases, then the total entropy of the universe from adding entropy of the system and entropy of the surroundings will increase.

[Anthony Lau-Xiao 1E]

Hello,

I think you are right. I think it just depends on what type of system you are looking at. In an open system it would be low or might decrease gradually as entropy of the universe/surroundings will increase instead. In an isolated system, entropy of an isolated system never decreases because isolated systems want to reach thermodynamic equilibrium to reach maximum entropy. But I am not sure, please correct me if I am wrong!