Systems inherently tend to evolve towards states of higher entropy due to the statistical likelihood of being in disordered states.

Entropy quantifies the disorder or randomness within a system. At the microscopic level, each state of a system corresponds to a specific arrangement of its constituent particles. For instance, consider a gas contained within a vessel: one possible state might involve all gas particles occupying one half of the container, while another state could represent the particles evenly distributed throughout the entire volume. The latter scenario is more disordered and therefore possesses higher entropy.

Understanding why systems gravitate towards higher entropy requires an examination of probability. There are significantly more ways to arrange particles in a system that result in a disordered state compared to an ordered one. If we were to randomly rearrange the particles in our gas container, it is far more probable that we would observe a state where the particles are dispersed rather than clustered together. This is due to the sheer number of possible arrangements that correspond to the dispersed state.

This concept is encapsulated in the second law of thermodynamics, which asserts that the total entropy of an isolated system can never decrease over time. While entropy can remain constant in ideal scenarios, such as when the system is in a steady state or undergoing a reversible process, it will always increase in the case of spontaneous changes. This phenomenon is often referred to as the principle of the increase of entropy.

In summary, systems naturally progress towards states of higher entropy because such states are statistically more probable. To illustrate this, imagine throwing a handful of marbles onto a chessboard; it is far more likely that the marbles will land in a random, disordered arrangement than in a perfectly straight line. This same principle applies to the particles in a system, underscoring the inherent tendency for systems to evolve towards states of higher entropy.