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Thermodynamics
Entropy at Absolute Zero
Description
The third law of thermodynamics links entropy to absolute zero. A pure, perfectly crystalline solid with no kinetic energy at 0 K has only one microstate. Because there is only one possible arrangement for its identical atoms or molecules, its entropy is zero.
This limiting case sets the entropy ...
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Transcript
The components of a substance have kinetic energy, which appears as different types of molecular motion, including translational, rotational, and vibrational motion.
With greater molecular motion, a substance has more ways to distribute the kinetic energy among its components; that is, it has a greater number of possible microstates.
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