Chapter 12, Problem 11E

Consider the system shown in Figure 12.9. What is the change in entropy for the process where the energy is initially associated only with particle A and B, and the energy is distributed between two particles in different boxes (one in A-B, the other in C-D)?

Figure 12.9 This shows a microstate model describing the flow of heat from a hot object to a cold object (a) Before the heat flow occurs, the object comprised of particles A and B contains both units of energy and as represented by a distribution of three microstates (b) If the heat flow results in an even dispersal of energy (one energy unit transferred), a distribution of four microstates results (c) if both energy units are transferred, the resulting distribution has three microstates.