The Third Law of Thermodynamics

Claimed by Emma Gele, Fall 2024

This page describes the Third Law of Thermodynamics, which relates the absolute entropy of a system to its temperature. This principle helps us to understand the behavior of materials at very low temperatures.

The Main Idea

The Third Law of Thermodynamics states that the entropy of a perfect crystal at absolute zero temperature is exactly zero.

Entropy ([math]\displaystyle{ S }[/math]) is a measure of the disorder or randomness in a system.

Temperature ([math]\displaystyle{ T }[/math]) is measured in Kelvin.

The principle can be expressed as:

[math]\displaystyle{ S \rightarrow 0 \quad \text{as} \quad T \rightarrow 0 , \text{K} }[/math]

where:

[math]\displaystyle{ S }[/math] is the entropy of the system,

[math]\displaystyle{ T }[/math] is the absolute temperature.

This implies that as a system approaches absolute zero, its thermal motion ceases, and it reaches a unique ground state with minimal disorder.

A Mathematical Model

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A Computational Model

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