Editing Entropy (section)

=== Energy dispersal ===
{{Main|Entropy (energy dispersal)}}
[[File:Ultra slow-motion video of glass tea cup smashed on concrete floor.webm|thumb|thumbtime=0:04|Slow motion video of a glass cup smashing on a concrete floor. In the very short time period of the breaking process, the entropy of the mass making up the glass cup rises sharply, as the matter and energy of the glass disperse.]]
The concept of entropy can be described qualitatively as a measure of energy dispersal at a specific temperature.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Lambert |first1=Frank L. |title=A Student's Approach to the Second Law and Entropy |url=http://franklambert.net/entropysite.com/students_approach.html }}</ref> Similar terms have been in use from early in the history of [[classical thermodynamics]], and with the development of [[statistical thermodynamics]] and [[quantum mechanics|quantum theory]], entropy changes have been described in terms of the mixing or "spreading" of the total energy of each constituent of a system over its particular quantised energy levels.

Ambiguities in the terms ''disorder'' and ''chaos'', which usually have meanings directly opposed to equilibrium, contribute to widespread confusion and hamper comprehension of entropy for most students.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Watson|first1=J.R.|last2=Carson|first2=E.M.|title=Undergraduate students' understandings of entropy and Gibbs free energy.|journal=University Chemistry Education|date=May 2002|volume=6|issue=1|page=4|url=http://www.rsc.org/images/Vol_6_No1_tcm18-7042.pdf|issn=1369-5614}}</ref> As the [[second law of thermodynamics]] shows, in an [[isolated system]] internal portions at different temperatures tend to adjust to a single uniform temperature and thus produce equilibrium. A recently developed educational approach avoids ambiguous terms and describes such spreading out of energy as dispersal, which leads to loss of the differentials required for work even though the total energy remains constant in accordance with the [[first law of thermodynamics]]<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Lambert|first1=Frank L.|s2cid=97102995|title=Disorder – A Cracked Crutch for Supporting Entropy Discussions|url=http://franklambert.net/entropysite.com/cracked_crutch.html|journal=Journal of Chemical Education|date=February 2002|volume=79|issue=2|pages=187|doi=10.1021/ed079p187|bibcode=2002JChEd..79..187L}}</ref> (compare discussion in next section). Physical chemist [[Peter Atkins]], in his textbook ''Physical Chemistry'', introduces entropy with the statement that "spontaneous changes are always accompanied by a dispersal of energy or matter and often both".<ref name="AtkinsPaula2019">{{cite book |author1=Peter Atkins |author2=Julio de Paula |author3=James Keeler |title=Atkins' Physical Chemistry 11e: Volume 3: Molecular Thermodynamics and Kinetics |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0UKjDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA89 |year=2019 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-882336-0 |page=89}}</ref>