Question

systems in nature tend to undergo changes toward
1. lower energy and lower entropy
2. lower energy and higher entropy
3. higher energy and lower entropy
4. higher energy and higher entropy
explanation.

Answer 1

I believe 1.. Lower energy because.. well that should be obvious right? if you could achieve something by spending a lot of energy or a minimum of energy you would choose the last one as well. and higher entropy because the second law of thermodynamics states that the entropy of an isolated system cannot decrease over time; work is needed to decrease entropy (thing of heat that always flow from a hot place to a cold place unless you add a ventilator which puts in work to decrease the temperature...

Answer 2

Aqua666's answer is not correct.

The driving force of thermodynamics for such systems is a mixture of energy and entropy. You will probably learn about that later.

For the time being, you can try to realise that reaching a more stable state is finding a lower energy, like a bead at the bottom of a bowl.
At the same time, systems will always tend to change for greater disorder. This is measured by the thermodynamical quantity called entropy.

So answer will be lower energy and higher entropy.

Answer 3

that is what I said.. I just put in the wrong number, sorry for that..

Answer 4

Indeed, you were right!