Question

You are given a beaker of water. What can you do to increase its entropy ? What can you do to decrease its entropy?

Short answer

Answer: To increase the entropy of a beaker of water, one can add heat to the system, which increases the energy of the water molecules and makes the system more disordered, or mix the water with another substance, such as sugar or salt. To decrease the entropy, one can cool the water, which slows down the movement of molecules and makes the system more ordered, or separate any dissolved substances using techniques like filtration or distillation.

Step-by-step solution

Increasing the entropy of the beaker of water

To increase the entropy of the beaker of water, we can add heat to the system. Heating the water will increase the energy of the water molecules, leading to more disorder and hence increased entropy. To add heat, you can simply put the beaker on a heat source like a hotplate or place it in a sunlit area.

Another way to increase entropy

Another way to increase the entropy of the beaker of water is by mixing it with another substance, for example, adding sugar or salt. Mixing two substances causes them to become more randomly distributed, thus increasing the overall entropy of the system.

Decreasing the entropy of the beaker of water

To decrease the entropy of a beaker of water, we need to remove energy from the system and make it more ordered. One way to do this is by cooling the water. Cooling water slows down the movement of water molecules and brings them closer together, resulting in a more ordered system. To cool the water, you can put the beaker in an ice bath or in a refrigerator.

Another way to decrease entropy

Another way to decrease the entropy of the beaker of water is through filtering or separating any dissolved substances, like salt or sugar. This reverts the mixture back to the original state with less randomness and therefore lower entropy. Removing dissolved substances can be done using techniques like filtration or distillation.