What is the energy transfer when you touch a block of ice with your hand?

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Answer 1 · 2016-02-21T19:42:10

When energy is transferred from surroundings to the system, this is an endothermic transfer and therefore, #DeltaH>0#.

If we consider the ice cube as our system and everything around (include our hand) is the surroundings.

We we touch the ice cube it will start melting which means that the energy is being transfer from our hand to the ice cube.

When energy is transferred from surroundings to the system, this is an endothermic transfer and therefore, #DeltaH>0#.

When the ice cube starts melting, the entropy of the system will also increase and therefore, #DeltaS>0#.

Note that in general, the entropy of the liquid (#S_(liquid)#) is greater then the entropy of the solid (#S_(solid)#).

Here is a video that further explains this phenomenon.
Thermodynamics | Spontaneous Process & Entropy.