LAWS OF THERMODYNAMICS Table of Contents Laws of Thermodynamics | Potential vs.

Kinetic energy | Learning Objectives Links

Laws of Thermodynamics | Back to Top

Energy exists in many forms, such as heat, light, chemical energy, and electrical energy. Energy is the ability to bring about change or to do work. Thermodynamics is the study of energy. First Law of Thermodynamics: Energy can be changed from one form to another, but it cannot be created or destroyed. The total amount of energy and matter in the Universe remains constant, merely changing from one form to another. The First Law of Thermodynamics (Conservation) states that energy is always conserved, it cannot be created or destroyed. In essence, energy can be converted from one form into another. Click here for another page (developed by Dr. John Pratte, Clayton State Univ., GA) covering thermodynamics. The Second Law of Thermodynamics states that "in all energy exchanges, if no energy enters or leaves the system, the potential energy of the state will always be less than that of the initial state." This is also commonly referred to as entropy. A watchspring-driven watch will run until the potential energy in the spring is converted, and not again until energy is reapplied to the spring to rewind it. A car that has run out of gas will not run again until you walk 10 miles to a gas station and refuel the car. Once the potential energy locked in carbohydrates is converted into kinetic energy (energy in use or motion), the organism will get no more until energy is input again. In the process of energy transfer, some energy will dissipate as heat. Entropy is a measure of disorder: cells are NOT disordered and so have low entropy. The flow of energy maintains order and life. Entropy wins when organisms cease to take in energy and die.

Potential vs. Kinetic energy | Back to Top

Potential energy, as the name implies, is energy that has not yet been used, thus the term potential. Kinetic energy is energy in use (or motion). A tank of gasoline has a certain potential energy that is converted into kinetic energy by the engine. When the potential is used up, you're outta gas! Batteries, when new or recharged, have a certain

potential. When placed into a tape recorder and played at loud volume (the only settings for such things), the potential in the batteries is transformed into kinetic energy to drive the speakers. When the potential energy is all used up, the batteries are dead. In the case of rechargeable batteries, their potential is reelevated or restored. In the hydrologic cycle, the sun is the ultimate source of energy, evaporating water (in a fashion raising it's potential above water in the ocean). When the water falls as rain (or snow) it begins to run downhill toward sea-level. As the water get closer to sealevel, it's potential energy is decreased. Without the sun, the water would eventually still reach sea-level, but never be evaporated to recharge the cycle. Chemicals may also be considered from a potential energy or kinetic energy standpoint. One pound of sugar has a certain potential energy. If that pound of sugar is burned the energy is released all at once. The energy released is kinetic energy (heat). So much is released that organisms would burn up if all the energy was released at once. Organisms must release the energy a little bit at a time. Energy is defined as the ability to do work. Cells convert potential energy, usually in the from of C-C covalent bonds or ATP molecules, into kinetic energy to accomplish cell division, growth, biosynthesis, and active transport, among other things.

Learning Objectives | Back to Top

These learning objectives are taken from my Biology for Nonmajors class (BIO 102). I have tried to add a link to each that will direct you to a part of this chapter or another website that will facilitate your completion of the objective. 1. Define energy; be able to state the first and second laws of thermodynamics. 2. Entropy is a measure of the degree of randomness or disorder of systems. Explain how life maintains a high degree of organization.

Thermodynamics is the study of energy, the conversion of energy between various forms and the ability of energy to do work. Initially, three laws of thermodynamics were posited. There seems to be a fourth, called the Zeroth Law, because Laws 1, 2, and 3 were spoken for. C.P. Snow, the British scientist and author has offered up an easy and funny way to remember the Three Laws. He says they can be translated as: (1) you cannot win (you cant get something for nothing because matter and energy are conserved. (2) You cannot break even (you cannot return to the same energy state because entropy always increases (3) you cannot get out of the game (because absolute zero is not attainable). So, what do these laws really say and why are they important? In simple terms, the Laws dictate the requirements for heat and work. They were generated during the 19th century as the industrial revolution took hold and grew. Physicists became involved with studying the flow of heat from machines as well as the chemical changes that accompanied the actual work. They were interested in gaining maximum efficiency. In other words, they wanted to create a perpetual motion machine, or one that could run off its own heat it created during the process of work, so it could do more work, create more heat and you get the point. Unfortunately for the machines owners, the physicists failed. Basically they showed that a perpetual motion machines was impossible. In so doing, they came up with the Three Laws of Thermodynamics. The First Law basically says that energy or matter can neither be created nor destroyed. In terms of the machine, this meant that the total energy output (work by the machine) is equal to the heat supplied. In other words, the change in the internal energy of a closed system is equal to the heat added to the system minus the work done by the system. Because the system operates in the real world, some energy always escapes into the outside world, thus leading to both inefficiency and the Second Law, which was generated to cover the so-called flaw in the First Law. The Second Law essentially says that it is impossible to obtain a process where the unique effect is the subtraction of a positive heat from a reservoir and the production of a positive work. Energy exhibits entropy. It moves away form its source. In this sense, energy or heat cannot flow form a colder body to a hotter body. You cannot keep a continual flow of heat to work to heat to work without adding energy to the system. In machine terms, you have to add energy to get more work, and the ratio of heat to work will never equal 100% due to energy expanding away from its source. The Third Law explains this further. It says that all processes cease as temperature approaches absolute zero. This is the temperature at which molecules cease movement, cease producing kinetic energy. In other words, there is no energy. With the First Law, we know that matter/energy can neither be created nor destroyed. It can change form, as in solid to liquid to gas to plasma and back again, but the amount of matter/energy in the system (the universe) stays constant. The Second Law says that while the quantity of matter/energy remains the same, the quality deteriorates over time. How could this happen? Usable energy is used for productivity, growth, and repair. In the course of this process, usable energy is converted into unusable energy, and usable energy is thus lost in the form of unusable energy. Entropy is used as a measure of unusable energy in a closed system. As it increases and usable energy decreases by the same amount (First Law) randomness increases. As said earlier, energy retreats from its source and generally in the form of unusable energy. As an incredibly simple illustration, think of a fire. As you add wood (matter), what is produced is heat (which then moves into the surrounding environment), and smoke and water vapor, which again escapes into the surrounding environment, and eventually ash, which gives up its last remaining heat to the surrounding environment. You are left with cold,dlead ash which has taken on a random form which is not seemingly related to the original form of the wood. The so-called Zeroth Law is a bit more fundamental than the other Three Laws. It came into being after the Three. It essentially says that if each of two systems is in equilibrium with a third system, the first two are in equilibrium with one another. An easy way to illustrate this in physical terms. John weighs the same as Bill. Sam weighs the same as Bill. Therefore John and Sam weigh the same. While the Zeroth Law describes much more complicated systems, the essentials are the same. Of these Laws of Thermodynamics the Second Law is the most powerful, and has the most implications. It is even present in the popular culture. No less a personage than Homer Simpson once said, In this house, we obey the Second Law of

Thermodynamics. Seriously, the Second Law basically says that the universe is constantly losing usable energy and never gaining. We also know that the universe is constantly expanding, as predicated by the Second Law, the Law of Entropy. We can conclude that the universe is finite. We could also conclude that the universe had a specific beginning, the moment of Zero Entropy What does this mean? One person described this condition in terms of a wind-up clock. Once wound tightly, it begins to slowly wind down until it reaches the end. The question is not when it will run down or when the universe will end. The question isWho wound the clock? Robert Jastrow, a NASA scientist said that if the universe was some sort of cosmic egg in the beginning and then hatched, it logically required a cosmic chicken.