What does irreversible process mean?

Definitions for irreversible process
ir·re·versible process

This dictionary definitions page includes all the possible meanings, example usage and translations of the word irreversible process.

Princeton's WordNet

  1. irreversible processnoun

    any process that is not reversible

Wikipedia

  1. Irreversible process

    In science, a process that is not reversible is called irreversible. This concept arises frequently in thermodynamics. All complex natural processes are irreversible, although a phase transition at the coexistence temperature (e.g. melting of ice cubes in water) is well approximated as reversible. In thermodynamics, a change in the thermodynamic state of a system and all of its surroundings cannot be precisely restored to its initial state by infinitesimal changes in some property of the system without expenditure of energy. A system that undergoes an irreversible process may still be capable of returning to its initial state. Because entropy is a state function, the change in entropy of the system is the same whether the process is reversible or irreversible. However, the impossibility occurs in restoring the environment to its own initial conditions. An irreversible process increases the total entropy of the system and its surroundings. The second law of thermodynamics can be used to determine whether a hypothetical process is reversible or not. Intuitively, a process is reversible if there is no dissipation. For example, Joule expansion is irreversible because initially the system is not uniform. Initially, there is part of the system with gas in it, and part of the system with no gas. For dissipation to occur, there needs to be such a non uniformity. This is just the same as if in a system one section of the gas was hot, and the other cold. Then dissipation would occur; the temperature distribution would become uniform with no work being done, and this would be irreversible because you couldn't add or remove heat or change the volume to return the system to its initial state. Thus, if the system is always uniform, then the process is reversible, meaning that you can return the system to its original state by either adding or removing heat, doing work on the system, or letting the system do work. As another example, to approximate the expansion in an internal combustion engine as reversible, we would be assuming that the temperature and pressure uniformly change throughout the volume after the spark. Obviously, this is not true and there is a flame front and sometimes even engine knocking. One of the reasons that Diesel engines are able to attain higher efficiency is that the combustion is much more uniform, so less energy is lost to dissipation and the process is closer to reversible.The phenomenon of irreversibility results from the fact that if a thermodynamic system, which is any system of sufficient complexity, of interacting molecules is brought from one thermodynamic state to another, the configuration or arrangement of the atoms and molecules in the system will change in a way that is not easily predictable. Some "transformation energy" will be used as the molecules of the "working body" do work on each other when they change from one state to another. During this transformation, there will be some heat energy loss or dissipation due to intermolecular friction and collisions. This energy will not be recoverable if the process is reversed. Many biological processes that were once thought to be reversible have been found to actually be a pairing of two irreversible processes. Whereas a single enzyme was once believed to catalyze both the forward and reverse chemical changes, research has found that two separate enzymes of similar structure are typically needed to perform what results in a pair of thermodynamically irreversible processes.

ChatGPT

  1. irreversible process

    An irreversible process is a process that cannot return both the system and its surrounding environment to the original state. In other words, the system cannot go back to its initial state without producing some permanent change in the surroundings. This type of process is usually characterized by some form of energy dissipation, such as friction, heat transfer, or non-spontaneous chemical reactions. Irreversible processes are often associated with an increase in entropy.

Wikidata

  1. Irreversible process

    In science, a process that is not reversible is called irreversible. This concept arises most frequently in thermodynamics, as applied to processes. In thermodynamics, a change in the thermodynamic state of a system and all of its surroundings cannot be precisely restored to its initial state by infinitesimal changes in some property of the system without expenditure of energy. A system that undergoes an irreversible process may still be capable of returning to its initial state; however, the impossibility occurs in restoring the environment to its own initial conditions. An irreversible process increases the entropy of the universe. However, because entropy is a state function, the change in entropy of a system is the same whether the process is reversible or irreversible. The second law of thermodynamics can be used to determine whether a process is reversible or not. All complex natural processes are irreversible. The phenomenon of irreversibility results from the fact that if a thermodynamic system, which is any system of sufficient complexity, of interacting molecules is brought from one thermodynamic state to another, the configuration or arrangement of the atoms and molecules in the system will change in a way that is not easily predictable. A certain amount of "transformation energy" will be used as the molecules of the "working body" do work on each other when they change from one state to another. During this transformation, there will be a certain amount of heat energy loss or dissipation due to intermolecular friction and collisions; energy that will not be recoverable if the process is reversed.

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Numerology

  1. Chaldean Numerology

    The numerical value of irreversible process in Chaldean Numerology is: 5

  2. Pythagorean Numerology

    The numerical value of irreversible process in Pythagorean Numerology is: 3

Examples of irreversible process in a Sentence

  1. Wang Feng:

    >HONG KONG, Jan 13 (Reuters) - Living under Chinas stringent COVID-19 restrictions for the past three years had caused Zhang Qi enough stress and uncertainty to consider not having babies in the country.When China abruptly dismantled its zero COVID regime last month to let the virus spread freely, the balance tilted to a definite No, the Shanghai-based e-commerce executive said.Stories about mothers and babies not being able to see doctors as medical facilities were overwhelmed by COVID infections were the final straw for Zhang.I heard that giving birth at a public hospital is just horrific. I really wouldn’t consider having a baby, the 31-year-old said.A glimpse of the scars caused by the pandemic to Chinas already bleak demographic outlook may come to light when it reports its official 2022 population data on Jan. 17.Some demographers expect Chinas population in 2022 to post its first drop since the Great Famine in 1961, a profound shift with far-reaching implications for the global economy and world order.New births for 2022 are set to fall to record lows, dropping below 10 million from last years 10.6 million babies - which were already 11.5% lower than in 2020.With this historical turn, China has entered a long and irreversible process of population decline, the first time in China and the worlds history.

  2. Pakistani Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz:

    Our resolve to eradicate the menace of terrorism is getting stronger and stronger with the loss of innocent lives and sacrifices of army and law enforcement officials, this fight is an irreversible process until this terrorism is rooted out from country.

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"irreversible process." Definitions.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 24 Apr. 2024. <https://www.definitions.net/definition/irreversible+process>.

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