Which property of a system is associated with its randomness?

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Prepare for the NCEES FE Other Disciplines Exam with flashcards and multiple-choice questions, each question has hints and explanations. Get ready to excel in your engineering career!

The property of a system that is associated with its randomness is entropy. Entropy is a thermodynamic quantity that measures the degree of disorder or randomness in a system. In essence, higher entropy indicates a greater degree of randomness and an increase in the number of possible microstates, which can be viewed as the various ways a system can be arranged while still maintaining the same macroscopic properties.

When considering the context of thermodynamics, a system with high entropy is likely to be more spread out or disordered compared to a system with low entropy, which is often more ordered and structured. This concept is central to the second law of thermodynamics, which states that the total entropy of an isolated system can never decrease over time, reflecting the natural tendency towards increased disorder.

In contrast, internal energy and enthalpy relate to the energy state of a system, including the heat content and work potential, but do not specifically address randomness or disorder. Adiabatic processes refer to conditions where no heat transfer occurs, but again, this term does not connect directly to the concept of randomness in a system. Thus, entropy stands out as the key property that quantifies randomness in thermodynamic systems.

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