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  Home > JCE Print > Journal of Chemical Education > Issues > 2002  > February  >
In the Classroom
Disorder--A Cracked Crutch for Supporting Entropy Discussions
Frank L. Lambert
2834 Lewis Dr., La Verne, CA 91750
Cover
February 2002
Vol. 79 No. 2
p. 187
Abstract
To aid students in visualizing an increase in entropy, many elementary chemistry texts use artists' before-and-after drawings of groups of "orderly" molecules that become "disorderly". This seems to be a useful visual support, but it can be so misleading as actually to be a failure-prone crutch. Ten examples illustrate the problem.

Entropy is not disorder, not a measure of chaos, not a driving force. Energy's diffusion or dispersal to more microstates is the driving force in chemistry. Entropy is the measure or index of that dispersal. In thermodynamics, the entropy of a substance increases when it is warmed because more thermal energy has been dispersed within it from the warmer surroundings. In contrast, when ideal gases or liquids are allowed to expand or to mix in a larger volume, the entropy increase is due to a greater dispersion of their original unchanged thermal energy. From a molecular viewpoint all such entropy increases involve the dispersal of energy over a greater number, or a more readily accessible set, of microstates. Frequently misleading, order-disorder as a description of entropy change is also an anachronism. It should be replaced by describing entropy change as energy dispersal--from a molecular viewpoint, by changes in molecular motions and occupancy of microstates.
More Information
*  Citation
 Lambert, Frank L. J. Chem. Educ. 2002 79 187.
*  Keywords
 General Chemistry; Introductory / High School Chemistry; Thermodynamics; Textbooks
*  History
 Created:
Last Updated:		 January 2, 2002
March 16, 2005
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