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INTRODUCTION
To a large extent, the economic and social welfare of modern
THE SECOND LAW OF THERMODYNAMICS
Thermodynamics treats the laws governing the transformation
societies is supported by their scientic and technical of energy between heat and work.9 Of four physical laws that
development (i.e., knowledge-based societies). For this reason, command the transformations of energy between its various
improving the teaching of basic science is subject to profuse formsmechanical, thermal, kinetic, potentialthese laws
research; its objective is to enhance the academic education of bear names according to ordinal numbers: zeroth, rst, second,
scientists, engineers, and technologists.1 Such an improvement and third laws of thermodynamics.10 The rst law establishes
of teaching implies that the students should achieve an the principle of the conservation of energy, and was the rst to
improved rationalization of basic concepts during their be rmly established as a physical law. Almost at the same time
university education. emerged the second law, which treats the spontaneity of
Recent eorts toward the didactic improvement in the processes, and the third law, also known as Nernsts heat
teaching of sciences have featured the need for an theorem, that establishes a reference point (entropy as a zero
implementation of novel pedagogical techniques in the limit at the absolute zero of temperature) to calculate
teachinglearning process. These techniques focus on the thermodynamic properties of chemical substances.
enhancement of the students attitudes toward the study of the From a historical perspective, the formulation and establish-
thematic content of their courses, and also toward the teacher ment of the SLT arose from the study of heat engines (or
(empathy).2,3 Positive attitudes are achievable through activities thermal machines; Figure 1) such as the steam engine
considered to be fun by the students, in a way radically dierent (developed by James Watt in the 18th century). Heat engines
from the traditional teaching approach of transmission of transform heat (thermal or caloric energy) into work
knowledge. A generation of positive attitudes in the students (mechanical energy) manifested as motion.
can thereby develop into an improved understanding of the Circa 1824, Sadi Carnot studied the cyclic process in the
course topics, converting learning into understanding, one of
working of thermal machines (heat engines) from a theoretical
the hallmarks of the new science of learning.4
perspective. From this study emerged the well-known Carnot
Attractive teaching activities applied as didactic strategies
cycle (Figure 2), which concludes that inexorably a portion of
include dramatizations,5 games,6 and animations,7 among
heat is not transformed into work.11,12 Using the results of
others.8 Activities of these kinds are particularly useful for
teaching thematic content considered to be dicult, as is the Carnot for the calculation of the net eciency of heat into
case of the second law of thermodynamics (SLT) as a topic in work, Rudolf Clausius in 1850 and Lord Kelvin in 1851
physical chemistry courses. subsequently discovered a new thermodynamic state function,
Here we report the implementation of a teaching activity that implicit in the cyclic process, given the name entropy (S).
consists of the observation of toys as an initial point to develop Moreover, Clausius and Kelvin discerned the pattern that this
the thematic content of the SLT. The aim of the activity is to quantity invariably increases in spontaneous processes
promote positive reactions in the students toward the
development of an understanding of the SLT. Published: April 11, 2014
2014 American Chemical Society and
Division of Chemical Education, Inc. 687 dx.doi.org/10.1021/ed400085z | J. Chem. Educ. 2014, 91, 687691
Journal of Chemical Education Activity
universe tends toward a maximum. (The original quotation in
German is Die Energie der Welt ist Konstant; die Entropie der
Welt strebteinem Maximum zu.) DIDACTIC STRATEGY
There are several ways to dene the SLT;12 a generalization This didactic strategy comprises having students play with toys
is the irreversibility of natural processes such that processes that work as thermal machines: generating motion from a heat
proceed in a specic direction: heat ows spontaneously from a ux. As part of this strategy, the students were separated into
hot object to a cold object, never in the reverse direction; a groups and a dierent toy was assigned to each group. The
drop of dye dissolves in water and, once dissolved, has never students played with the toys, and they were asked about the
been observed to separate from water, among many other working principle of each. The instructor eventually explained
examples. The spontaneous direction in which natural in detail the operational mechanism of the function of the toys,
processes proceed invariably points to the direction of emphasizing the transfer of heat (q) between the hot (Th) and
increasing total entropy (Suniv). cold (Tc) zones as the origin of the observed motion, which is a
The importance of the SLT is due to its predictive power in physical manifestation of work (w). The purpose of this
determining the direction of spontaneity. Applied to chemistry, experience is to make sense of the scheme of Figure 1 in a
this law can predict the direction in which chemical reactions pragmatic manner.
and physical transformations of matter proceed. An eective The toys used for this purpose were a drinking bird, a
development of the concepts embodied in the SLT is of crucial radiometer, and a Stirling engine. In the following section, the
688 dx.doi.org/10.1021/ed400085z | J. Chem. Educ. 2014, 91, 687691
Journal of Chemical Education Activity
black side than on the white side, and eventually these collisions
propel the rotor.25,26
After the observation of the radiometer in action, some
students suggested that the working principle is based on light
Figure 3. (a) A drinking bird. (b) Working of the toy and the pressure caused by elastic collisions of photons on the white
correlation of its parts with the generalized scheme of a heat engine in
sides of the rotor and absorption on the black sides; this
which the motion is related to the work (w).
explanation is incorrect because it predicts rotations in the
inverse sense. Some students proposed, however, that a
temperature dierence must be established between the two
instance in The Simpsons. The body of the toy is a tube that
faces of the blades, which is a fact, and some other students
contains a volatile liquid such as dichloromethane (CH2Cl2).
added that the rotation can be explained with convective
The drinking bird produces motion after wetting of the head
currents, which is incorrect (again, this idea predicts a rotation
of the toy; the evaporation of water from the head produces a
in the opposite direction).
cooling eect and thereby a dierence of temperature between
the head and abdomen of the bird. This dierence of Stirling Engine
temperature produces a dierence of vapor pressure of the This engine (Figure 5, a version with a free piston is less
volatile liquid; the vapor pressure is therefore larger in the expensive) is a device that resembles the heat engines or
birds abdomen than in the cooler head. This dierence of
pressure propels the liquid to ascend to the head through the
birds neck; when the liquid reaches the head, the center of
mass of the toy alters, causing an imbalance and inclination of
the bird, producing motion (work). This inclination causes
pressure to become equal between the head and the abdomen
of the bird, because of the connection of the gas spaces between
the birds parts, thereby causing the liquid to fall to the
abdomen. This eect restores the initial situation, allowing the
toy to repeat the process (cyclic characteristic). Further
quantitative details can be found in the literature,24 but are
not necessary for this introductory activity.
In their explanations about the working principle of the
drinking bird, the students correctly observed that a dierence
in temperature must exist between the abdomen and the head;
they incorrectly thought, however, that the warmer abdomen
Figure 5. A Stirling engine and its parts.
must expand the liquid, causing it to climb.
The Radiometer thermal machines used to explain the origin of the SLT. For the
A radiometer (Figure 4) produces motion through its specic Stirling engine used in an experiment with students, the
irradiation with light, thereby transforming radiant energy temperature dierence needed for its working is achieved by
(light) into mechanical energy (motion); this transformation placing the bottom of the engine on a cup of hot water and
generates a dierence of temperature between the faces of the some pieces of ice on the top (see Figure 5). The assembled
blades of a rotor. This rotor is located inside a bulb containing a Stirling engine involves a piston and a displacer; its function is
gas at a small pressure; each blade of the rotor has one side to reaccommodate the gas inside the engine to be alternatively
painted white and the other black. An irradiation with light in contact with the hot zone (expansion of the gas) at one
causes the black side to become hotter than the white side moment and then in contact with the cold zone (contraction of
because of light absorption. This minor temperature dierence the gas). The alternating expansion and contraction of the gas
causes the molecules to make more vigorous collisions on the produces the motion of the piston (work).
689 dx.doi.org/10.1021/ed400085z | J. Chem. Educ. 2014, 91, 687691
Journal of Chemical Education
Activity
This Stirling engine was really a black box for the students CONCLUSION
(inner parts are not observable); it was, however, obvious to the This work shows the application of an activity in which
students that a dierence of temperature is involved in its students play with toys that function as heat engines. This
working principle, because of the involvement of hot water and didactic strategy was successful in causing students of physical
ice for the function of the toy.
a cold sink can serve to generate work.
S5: The activity helped me to understand the connection AUTHOR INFORMATION
between the concepts Carnot cycle and entropy.
Corresponding Author
S6: The development of the activity in class was adequate:
playing with the toys explaining the function of the *E-mail: erick.castellon@ucr.ac.cr.
toys developing the topics of heat engines and the Notes
Carnot cycle). The authors declare no competing nancial interest.
Figure 6 shows the results of the evaluation of the activity
according to that scale. In general terms, a positive degree of ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I thank J. F. Ogilvie and Julio Mata-Segreda for comments on
this work.
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