An increase in total entropy is the fundamental condition for thermodynamic spontaneity
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Reference and textbook literature indicate that physical and chemical changes are spontaneously possible only when they lead to an increase in total entropy.
The concept entropy was first developed by German physicist Rudolf Clausius in the mid-nineteenth century as a thermodynamic property that predicts that
The concept entropy was first developed by German physicist Rudolf Clausius in the mid-nineteenth century as a thermodynamic property that predicts that certain spontaneous processes are irreversible or impossible. In statistical mechanics, entropy is formulated as a statistical property using probability theory. The statistical entropy perspective was introduced in 1870 by Austrian physicist Ludw
the total entropy of any isolated thermodynamic system tends to increase over time, approaching a maximum value.
Since its discovery, this idea has been the focus of a great deal of thought, some of it confused. A chief point of confusion is the fact that the Second Law applies only to isolated systems. For example, the Earth is not an isolated system because it is constantly receiving energy in the form of sunlight. In contrast, the universe may be considered an isolated system, so that its total entropy is constantly increasing. (Needs clarification. See: Second law of thermodynamics#cite note-Grandy 151-21)
The entropy belonging to a given state is therefore a function of that state alone, irrespective of the manner in which it has been reached; and this is the justification of the assignment to it of a special name, connoting a property of the system depending on its actual condition and not on its previous history. Every reversible change in an isolated system thus maintains the entropy of that system unaltered; no possible spontaneous change can involve decrease of the entropy; while any defect of reversibility, arising from diffusion of matter or motion in the system, necessarily leads to increase of entropy. For a physical or chemical system only those changes are spontaneously possible which would lead to increase of the entropy; if the entropy is already a maximum for the given total energy, and so incapable of further continuous increase under the conditions imposed upon the system, there must be stable equilibrium.
Any change in the physical world is consequent to a net force levelling down available energy. Different features of a system, or process, can determine on which properties of the system the levelling force eventually operates. Examples are the equilibration of the pressure of a gas, of the temperature of bodies, of the concentration of solutions, of the position of a body with respect to a fluid in the presence of a gravitational field, and so on. All these phenomena occur because of the levelling force and are associated with an entropy increase. The entropy increase can be calculated through specific relationships.
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