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So salt combining with water takes energy, and separating it gives off energy. Yet combining happens spontaneously, and separation doesn’t. Because I don’t unde
by richk449 3y ago
So salt combining with water takes energy, and separating it gives off energy. Yet combining happens spontaneously, and separation doesn’t. Because I don’t understand this, it seems like a paradox. What am I missing?
- lazide 3y agoThey’re talking about a tiny, tiny portion of the energy balance for one part of the salt in saltwater. The energy needs to actually purify it are far, far greater in practice.
- AnotherGoodName 3y agoTo move to each side of the energy states you need to overcome a hump between. Think electron tunneling. The separated side is the lower energy state. It's just that we don't know a good way to 'tunnel' to that state from the higher energy state in this particular case. The separated state has an easy way to receive energy to overcome that hump. It just needs agitation. There should be a way to reverse it and gain energy but we haven't found a good way yet.
- IshKebab 3y agoYou're forgetting about entropy. You can magically unmix a cake. http://butane.chem.uiuc.edu/pshapley/GenChem1/L20/2.html http://butane.chem.uiuc.edu/pshapley/GenChem1/L20/2.html