Some endothermic reactions can occur spontaneously. Whether a reaction occurs depends on both the change in enthalpy and the change in entropy. Entropy refers to the disorder of a system, and spontaneous reactions often increase the randomness or disorder. The factors of enthalpy (H) and entropy (S) combine to give the free energy (G) of a system. For a reaction to be spontaneous, the change in free energy (ΔG) must be negative. A negative ΔG can result from an exothermic reaction (negative ΔH) or from an increase in disorder (positive ΔS).