The air in this room consists of countless tiny, independent molecules. You can be sure that all the oxygen molecules will not all shift spontaneously to the other side of the room (leaving you without oxygen) because that would
A) violate Newton's laws of motion.
B) be extremely unlikely and therefore violate the 2nd law of thermodynamics.
C) violate Bernoulli's equation.
D) not conserve energy and therefore violate the 1st law of thermodynamics.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The second law of thermodynamics states that the total entropy of an isolated system can never decrease over time, and is constant if and only if all processes are reversible. The spontaneous movement of all oxygen molecules to one side of the room would represent a significant decrease in entropy (a more ordered state), making it extremely unlikely to occur, thus violating the second law of thermodynamics.

The Air in This Room Consists of Countless Tiny, Independent