Skip to main content

Spontaneous Process Defined

This video presents the same text shown beside it, spoken and on screen. It adds nothing the text does not say.

State

A spontaneous process is one that occurs on its own under a given set of conditions, without a continual outside input of energy.

Show

Ice at room temperature melts on its own; no outside push is needed to start it.

Watch for

Students often label any exothermic or "natural-seeming" process spontaneous without checking the actual conditions involved.