Chapter 2 of 10All chapters
Chapter 2 of 10
The first law
Energy is conserved.
What it forbids
Energy changes form and the total never changes. That rules out any machine producing more energy than it consumes, however cleverly it is described.
- Internal energy changes by heat added minus work done.
- Every claimed free energy device violates this and none has survived testing.
Work and heat
Both transfer energy: work through organised force and motion, heat through disorganised particle collisions. The distinction is what the second law is about.