coffeem said:however my thinking is that if the the system is adiabatic... then the entropy will stay constant... then it will be 0? am i on the right lines? thanks
Entropy is a measure of the disorder or randomness of a system. In other words, it is a measure of the number of possible arrangements that a system can have.
In a Carnot cycle, entropy remains constant in the isothermal processes (where heat is exchanged at a constant temperature) and increases in the adiabatic processes (where no heat is exchanged). This means that the total change in entropy over a full Carnot cycle is zero.
Entropy is important in a Carnot cycle because it is closely related to the efficiency of the cycle. The maximum efficiency of a heat engine (such as a carnot engine) is determined by the temperatures of the heat source and sink, and the change in entropy. A higher change in entropy results in a lower efficiency.
No, entropy cannot decrease in a Carnot cycle. This is because the Carnot cycle is a reversible process, meaning that it can be run in reverse without any energy losses. In a reversible process, the change in entropy is always zero.
The second law of thermodynamics states that the total entropy of a closed system (a system that does not exchange matter or energy with its surroundings) will always increase over time. In a Carnot cycle, the increase in entropy during the adiabatic processes follows this law.