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Supercooled water freezes. Is this a spontaneous process??
"one mole of supercooled water at -10degC freezes reversibly to ice at -10degC at constant P of 1500atm. The system is at chemical equilibrium. Assume that ΔH_fusion is independent of temperature. Also assume that the densities of ice and water are independent of temperature. State whether the following are <, > or = 0:
q, w, delta H, delta U, delta V, delta P, delta T, delta G, delta A"
I just need help understanding chemical equilibrium with respect to gibbs energy though...
my specific question is: what exactly do they mean when they say that "system is at equilibrium?" what does that imply? I know that Delta G refers to whether process is spontaneous or not. But is supercooled water that freezes a spontaneous process or not?
I looked up supercooling and it has to basically be disturbed to freeze (needs something to crystallize around), otherwise, if conditions don't change, it just stays the same. So does that mean that process is NOT spontaneous and therefore delta G > 0 ?
thanks for any clarification
Homework Statement
"one mole of supercooled water at -10degC freezes reversibly to ice at -10degC at constant P of 1500atm. The system is at chemical equilibrium. Assume that ΔH_fusion is independent of temperature. Also assume that the densities of ice and water are independent of temperature. State whether the following are <, > or = 0:
q, w, delta H, delta U, delta V, delta P, delta T, delta G, delta A"
I just need help understanding chemical equilibrium with respect to gibbs energy though...
Homework Equations
The Attempt at a Solution
my specific question is: what exactly do they mean when they say that "system is at equilibrium?" what does that imply? I know that Delta G refers to whether process is spontaneous or not. But is supercooled water that freezes a spontaneous process or not?
I looked up supercooling and it has to basically be disturbed to freeze (needs something to crystallize around), otherwise, if conditions don't change, it just stays the same. So does that mean that process is NOT spontaneous and therefore delta G > 0 ?
thanks for any clarification