1 Chapter 16 - Spontaneity, Entropy, and Free Energy 16.1 Spontaneous Processes and Entropy A. First Law 1. "Energy can neither be created nor destroyed" 2. The energy of the universe is constant B. Spontaneous Processes 1. Processes that occur without outside intervention 2. Spontaneous processes may be fast or slow a. Many forms of combustion are fast b. Conversion of diamond to graphite is slow C. Entropy (S) 1. A measure of the randomness or disorder 2. The driving force for a spontaneous process is an increase in the entropy of the universe 3. Entropy is a thermodynamic function describing the number of arrangements that are available to a system a. Nature proceeds toward the states that have the highest probabilities of existing D. Positional Entropy