Question

Question: Which do you think has the greater entropy, 1 kg of solid iron or 1 kg of liquid iron? Why?

Short answer

The entropy of the one kg liquid iron is greater than the entropy of the one kg solid iron.

Step-by-step solution

Meaning of entropy

The term entropy may be defined as the characteristic of a system that estimates the system's degree of disorder. It is considered as the state function.

Entropy of a liquid and solid substance 

The order of composition of molecules in liquid iron is weaker than the order of solid iron. Hence, the molecules have higher kinetic energy in liquid iron than solid iron and possess more thermal energy. Thus, the entropy of liquid iron is greater than solid iron.

To melt the solid iron, we must provide heat energy. The provision of heat enhances the kinetic energy of molecules and hence improves their entropy.