Chapter 15, Problem 16Q

To determine

Whether the stacking of the strewn papers over the floor violets the second law of thermodynamics?

Answer to Problem 16Q

Solution:

No, the stacking of the strewn papers over the floor doesn’t violet the second law of thermodynamics.

Explanation of Solution

When lot of papers are strewn over the floor and if we stack them neatly, we find that the disordered papers has changed to ordered papers resulting in the decrease in the entropy of the papers but this process does not occur spontaneously, but some external energy source is involved in ordering the papers that is us. Our hand entropy is increased more than the entropy of the paper is decreased so net entropy of the universe is increased thus satisfying the second law of thermodynamics.