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Entropy PDF

Biological systems develop and maintain a high degree of order through an expenditure of energy. Plants use energy from sunlight in chloroplasts to convert carbon dioxide and water into ordered sugar molecules through photosynthesis. Animals then use the stored energy in sugars through mitochondria to form more complex structures, allowing biological systems to decrease entropy despite the second law of thermodynamics.

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50 views2 pages

Entropy PDF

Biological systems develop and maintain a high degree of order through an expenditure of energy. Plants use energy from sunlight in chloroplasts to convert carbon dioxide and water into ordered sugar molecules through photosynthesis. Animals then use the stored energy in sugars through mitochondria to form more complex structures, allowing biological systems to decrease entropy despite the second law of thermodynamics.

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rushibmr19785604
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Decrease of Entropy in Biological Systems

1 of 2

http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/thermo/bioentropy.html#c1

Energy and Order in Biological


Systems
The concept of entropy and the second law of thermodynamics suggests that
systems naturally progress from order to disorder. If so, how do biological
systems develop and maintain such a high degree of order? Is this a violation
of the second law of thermodynamics?

Order can be produced with an expenditure of energy, and the order


associated with life on the earth is produced with the aid of energy from the
sun.

Index
Second
law
concepts
Heat
engine
concepts

For example, plants use energy from the sun in tiny energy factories called
chloroplasts. Using chlorophyll in the process called photosynthesis, they
convert the sun's energy into storable form in ordered sugar molecules. In this
way, carbon and water in a more disordered state are combined to form the
more ordered sugar molecules.
In animal systems there are also small structures within the cells called
mitochondria which use the energy stored in sugar molecules from food to
form more highly ordered structures.
A tree converts disorder to order with a little help from the Sun
Qualitative statements of the Second Law of Thermodynamics

HyperPhysics***** Thermodynamics

R
Nave

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16-10-2013 20:47

Decrease of Entropy in Biological Systems

2 of 2

http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/thermo/bioentropy.html#c1

16-10-2013 20:47

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