how do you know a reaction is spontaneous
Now that we know the overall entropy change should increase for spontaneous reactions, we can use this information to tell if a reaction is spontaneous or not. To be able to tell if a reaction is spontaneous or not qualitatively, meaning, without having to calculate anything, the first thing we look at is the entropy.There are ways to tell if the entropy of your system increases.These are listed below.ccording to the second law of thermodynamics, a reaction is spontaneous if the overall entropy or disorder increases. If we go back to our cleaning the house analogy, when our home becomes messy, then the entropy increases. The mess that accumulates is a spontaneous reaction, and as a result, the entropy increases.