Why does a reaction spontaneously occur?
Gibbs free energy
Why does a reaction spontaneously occur?
Imagine you're at a party and decide to mix different colored sand into a glass. You pour them in separately, but they don't mix on their own.
Some mixtures, like sand colors, naturally come together without extra effort, while others don't. This happens because of a balance between energy needed and the disorder created.
Example
Mixing red and blue sand results in purple sand without extra effort, showing a spontaneous reaction.
Remember this
A spontaneous reaction occurs when the energy released plus the disorder created is positive, indicating a natural tendency to proceed.
Text adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Related concepts
Internal energy
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Second law of thermodynamics
Entropy of isolated systems never decreases
universality means in phase transitions
Why do ice cubes vanish in a glass of water?
Spontaneous symmetry breaking
Spontaneous symmetry breaking occurs even when laws retain symmetry
Emergence
Why do simple ingredients create something complex and delicious?
Symmetry (physics)
Symmetry leads to energy conservation
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