In an irreversible change, this is a change that is permanent and cannot be undone to restore the original structure. So when we undergo our irreversible change, we can't go backwards. We're stuck with whatever we make.
Now the most common example of irreversible changes deal with chemical changes. Now remember, chemical changes change the identity of our original material. A great example here is we have nitrogen gas, hydrogen gas and together they combine to give us NH3 gas. They have chemically bonded to each other an end to an H2 to form our compound of NH3. And because it chemically bonded this way, it's going to be irreversible process.
OK. So we're going forward in One Direction. Once we've made that NH3 group, we can't go backwards and remake our N2 and H2 by normal conditions. So just remember, an irreversible process creates something brand new and it forever alters the way our original material was. We can't go back to it, at least not by normal means.
All right, now that we've seen the difference between reversible and irreversible processes, let's click on the next question and let's tackle some example problems.
