Development of a spreadsheet-based tool to facilitate understanding of thermal entropy

Learners of thermodynamics learn a basic thermodynamic state quantity “entropy” which is challenging to understand owing to multiple reasons. First, entropy is explained using multiple defining equations； intuitively understanding the meaning from the equations can be difficult. Second, entropy is often explained in terms of “clutter” and “disorder” of energy； however, the correspondence between these concepts and the defining equation is not obtained intuitively. Therefore, in this study, we considered a virtual lattice space in which gas molecules are arranged and developed a model that enables intuitive understanding and quantitative calculations using defining equations. Specifically, the model was implemented in spreadsheet software with 100 gas molecules in a virtual space of 100 lattices. The model showed that even such a simple model can define thermodynamic quantities and quantify the number of cases Win Boltzmann’s equation from the viewpoint of the arrangement of molecules in lattice space. This is a tool that can calculate and quantitatively examine all entropy from multiple entropy-defining equations. This calculation sheet shows that the calculated values of entropy by the Sackur–Tetrode equation and Boltzmann’s equation are almost the same. Furthermore, the entropy difference calculated using the thermodynamic defining equation dS = dQ/T was also consistent with the values by other equations. Therefore, the model can specifically calculate the values of various entropy-defining equations.