Extend Activity #1 Misunderstood

A response to the Misunderstood Activity
created by Mehrdad Kashefi (@Mehrdad Kashefi)

Number of views: 91

In my physical Chemistry class, the misunderstanding that equilibrium is equal to order (in the second law of thermodynamics) is a common misconception. In fact, one of the key ideas of the second law is that systems tend to move away from equilibrium where disorder or randomness is greater.
The process of adding a drop of ink to a glass of water is a real-world example. When you add a drop of ink to the water, initially, you can see the ink drop as a distinct and concentrated region within the water, but as time passes, the ink molecules spread out and mix with the water molecules. Eventually, they reach a state of equilibrium means the ink is evenly distributed, and the water appears uniformly colored. This state of equilibrium has a higher disorder compared to the initial state when the ink was concentrated in a drop and was separated from water in the glass.
this example of adding a drop of ink to water demonstrates how natural processes tend to increase disorder while moving toward the equilibrium.