Applying the Second Law
Highlights of the activity
- This small group activity is designed to give students practice with determining whether a process is reversible or irreversible.
- Students use their knowledge about entropy (irreversibility) to classify processes as either reversible or irreversible.
- The whole class discussion focuses on ensuring that students understand how to determine the reversibility of a process.
Reasons to spend class time on the activity
We have found that students initially find it challenging to determine if a thermodynamic process is reversible or irreversible. Frequently giving students exercises in analyzing thermodynamic processes using the second law improves the ability to recognize a reversible process as opposed to one that is irreversible. This activity provides students the opportunity to practice assessing reversible and irreversible processes.