CHEM 1002 Chapter 12.1: 12.1 Spontaneity

• School: Carleton University
• Department: Chemistry
• Course: CHEM 1002
• Professor: Bob Burk

Document Summary

Every process has preferred direction = spontaneous direction. E. g. water; its spontaneous direction is downhill. A spontaneous direction can only be reversed if a force is applied (if enough force is applied the process will move in its non-spontaneous direction -e. g. water moving uphill) A process may be spontaneous but may not occur; e. g. water behind a dam will not flow. A pro(cid:272)ess that does (cid:374)ot appear spo(cid:374)ta(cid:374)eous (cid:373)a(cid:455) (cid:271)e (cid:448)er(cid:455) slo(cid:449) or (cid:374)o(cid:374) spo(cid:374)ta(cid:374)eous uphill is water"s spontaneous direction. Spontaneous direction in which matter becomes more spread out or dispersed. E. g. a students dorm will get naturally messy however will not spontaneously clean itself up. A(cid:374)other e(cid:454)a(cid:373)ple: sugar (cid:373)ole(cid:272)ules are (cid:373)ore dispersed (cid:449)he(cid:374) the(cid:455) dissol(cid:448)e i(cid:374) (cid:272)offee (cid:374)o(cid:374) spontaneous direction; sugar (cid:373)ole(cid:272)ules do(cid:374)"t just refor(cid:373) i(cid:374)to sugar (cid:272)u(cid:271)es o(cid:374)(cid:272)e (cid:271)ei(cid:374)g re(cid:373)o(cid:448)ed from coffee a external force is needed to do so.