Question

A change cannot occur spontaneously if it is accompanied by:
A. An energy decrease and an increase in randomness.
B. An energy increase and an increase in randomness.
C. An energy decrease and a decrease in randomness.
D. An energy increase and a decrease in randomness.
E. A Gibbs energy decrease.

D makes the most sense to me, but I don't know this stuff

Answer 1

I agree with you but I don't think much of the question.

Answer 2

What do you mean you don't think much of the question? That you think it is easy?
I didn't get it because does energy increase mean an exothermic or endothermic reaction because a reaction isn't spontaneous if the reaction is endothermic and the entropy decreases.

Answer 3

No, I thought the question was not a good question. My problem with it is I don't understand why each possible answer has anything about randomness(delta S). Perhaps I don't understand what the question means by more or less energy. I equated this with delta G (Gibbs free energy) until I read the D answer, then I didn't know what to think about energy. Perhaps energy is being used in the sense of delta H. So my response to you was a "wishy washy" I agree with your answer in that it makes some sense if we just knew for sure what more or less energy means.