Question

When plants and animals take up energy to synthesise complex molecules, they tend to concentrate energy and not disperse it. Is this in accordance with the second law of thermodynamics? Explain why or why not?

Answer 1

Yes these processes are in accordance with second law of thermodynamics. For example plants are taking up energy from the sun and using that energy to create food. i. e Synthesize complex molecules. So it is accordance with the law as the energy is being transformed from light energy to food. But note that not all of the energy obtained from the sun is being converted to form complex molecules, some of the energy is also lost in the form of heat too. Also the entropy of the source is increasing only.