Friday, February 25, 2011

Thermodynamics

According to First law of thermodynamics energy can be changed from one form to another, but it cannot be created or destroyed. So, changing energy from one form to another would be considered reusing the energy in my opinion. Energy changes from Kinetic to Potential energy or vice versa. When we start the car and release gas the energy which is  being used is called Kinetic energy and when it stops it turns in to Potential energy. But once we release the gas, the energy that's being used can't be recaptured. However, it's probably being used in the air with other molecules. So, yes I do believe that energy can be reused.

4 comments:

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  2. I like the example you used to show how energy can change, and also how you explained that sometimes, even if we cannot capture and 'see' it being re-used, this energy is probably being re-used somewhere in the environment. The only thing that I would add is that not 100% of that energy is being reused, just a portion (law #2).

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  3. This whole potential versus kinetic energy is the part that throws most people I believe. How to capture energy to reuse is the difficult part as most of it is lost as heat.

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  4. I am unclear as to how the energy is being re-used...

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