A description of the response of a system in equilibrium to a change in one of the variables determining the equilibrium. Le Chatelier's principle is often stated as the following: For a system in equilibrium, a change in a variable shifts the equilibrium in the direction that opposes the change in that variable. However, this statement is false, since the shift induced by a change in a variable is sometimes in the direction that augments (rather than opposes) the change in the variable. Instead of a single general statement, the response of a system in equilibrium to a change in a variable is best described by a set of particular statements. The following statements are all valid consequences of the laws of thermodynamics.