However, the prediction of spontaneity for chemical systems is not as intuitively obvious. A mechanical system tends toward lowest potential energy, which is usually easy to see. A spontaneous process is one that occurs without ongoing outside intervention (such as the performance of work by some external force). Thermodynamics aims to predict spontaneity. Consequently, the most efficient use of energy generally occurs with the smallest number of transactions. Not only is the "heat tax" lost to the surroundings, but additional energy is also lost as heat because real-world processes don't achieve the theoretically possible maximum efficiency. Nature imposes a heat tax, which is an unavoidable cut of every energy transaction. The second law of thermodynamics states that energy is lost to the surroundings in order for a process to occur at all. In most energy transactions, some energy is lost to the surroundings, so each transaction is only fractionally efficient. According to the first law of thermodynamics, energy is conserved in chemical processes. The freezing of water, the dissolving of a solid, and the neutralization of a base, all increase entropy. In our universe, entropy always increases. Nature tends toward that state in which energy is spread out to the greatest possible extent. The driving force behind chemical and physical change in the universe is a quantity called entropy, which is related to the dispersion (or spreading out) of energy.
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