Submitted by SheeshKebabi t3_zx9m4v in explainlikeimfive
etoleb123 t1_j20p5cb wrote
Reply to comment by r3dl3g in ELI5 What is Thermodynamics? by SheeshKebabi
Enthalpy is well described above.
With Entropy, think of it as a measure of the “quality” of the energy—specifically, how useless has the energy become? High entropy = more useless. This is important because energy is not created or destroyed, but it does change and in those changes it becomes less useful.
For example, when you burn the gas in your car, you get ~35% efficiency—that is, only 35% turns into kinetic energy of the car. The other 65% isn’t lost…it is just dissipated in the atmosphere as heat and cannot easily be used any more. So its entropy has increased.
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