Lab Report: Entropy Simulation - The Oakwood School

Lab Report: Entropy Simulation
Name: Keyla Thompson
Purpose
To simulate the second law of thermodynamics and the concept of entropy
Materials
10 pennies Box with lid
Procedures
Place two pennies in the box, both heads-up, and close the box. Shake the box a
few times and open the box. Make the following observations and then repeat
using 4, 6, 8, and 10 pennies.
• Record the number of pennies in the box.
• Record the number of heads after shake.
• Record the number of tails after shake.
Observations/Data
Number of pennies
Number of heads
after shake
Number of tails after
shake
2 1 1
4 2 2
6 2 4
8 2 6
10 7 3

Conclusion
Answer the following questions:
1. How did the arrangement of pennies change after each shake? Did you
get different results based on how many pennies were in the box?
Did you ever end with an equal arrangement of heads and tails?
• The change was random. The results varied more as the number of
pennies increased. The first two trials resulted in 50% for each possible
outcome.
2. After starting with an “ordered” set, how likely do you think it would be to
get back to a state of “order” after shaking the box numerous times?
• I think that is very unlikely to happen.
3. How does this demonstrate entropy?
• Simply put, the level of entropy increased in the system of pennies and
box. It never decreased. It would require the work of my hand to get the
pennies back to the original state of order. The system would not do that
itself spontaneously.