Why does heat move from an area of higher energy to an area with lower energy?
Chemistry · High School · Tue Nov 03 2020
Answered on
Heat moves from an area of higher energy to an area with lower energy due to the fundamental principle of the second law of thermodynamics, specifically the concept of entropy. Entropy is a measure of the disorder or randomness in a system.
In a spontaneous process, systems tend to move towards a state of greater disorder. Heat transfer from higher energy to lower energy regions is a natural consequence of this tendency. It leads to an increase in the overall entropy of the system, as energy becomes more dispersed.
This movement of heat from higher to lower energy areas is also consistent with the fact that systems tend to reach thermodynamic equilibrium, where energy distribution is uniform and entropy is maximized.