Lectures on Physics has been derived from Benjamin Crowell's Light and Matter series of free introductory textbooks on physics. See the editorial for more information....

Entropy increases in heat conduction

When a hot object gives up energy to a cold one, conservation of energy tells us that the amount of heat lost by the hot object is the same as the amount of heat gained by the cold one. The change in entropy is -Q/TH + Q/TL, which is positive because TL < TH.




Last Update: 2009-06-21