I had a homework question that confused me a little bit. We were told to find the change in entropy of the system and the universe of a process. This process is an adiabatic, reversible process. From what I understand, reversible indicates that change in entropy of the universe is zero. Adiabatic means the change in entropy of the surroundings is zero. This would mean that the entropy of the system is zero. I feel like I am missing something here.
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1 Answer
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You are not missing anything.
The change in entropy of the system for a reversible adiabatic process is zero. There is no transfer of entropy to or from the system because there is no heat transfer to or from the system due to it being an adiabatic process. Likewise since only heat can transfer entropy to the surroundings the entropy of the surroundings is also zero.
Finally, since a change in entropy of the system is the sum of entropy transfer and entropy generation, there is no generation of entropy in the system because the adiabatic process is reversible (carried out quasi-statically and without friction).
Hope this helps.
