Laws of Thermodynamics and Explaining How Scientific Laws Apply to Energy Use, Energy Conversion and the Need for Energy Efficiency

Unit 3 Individual Project

 Environmental Science

Aldria Rose

American Intercontinental University

In this paper I will be describing the laws of thermodynamics and explaining how scientific laws apply to energy use, energy conversion and the need for energy efficiency. I will also be describing the pros and cons of different energy types such as fossil fuel, nuclear energy, solar energy, wind power, water (hydro) power and bioconversion.

        Before discussing the laws of thermodynamics we must first understand what exactly thermodynamics is. Thermodynamics is a branch of physics that deals with the relations between heat and other energy forms (Lucas, 2015). There are three laws of thermodynamics. The first law of thermodynamics indicates that heat is a form of energy and is subjected to the principle of conservation of energy (Lucas, 2015). From the first law of thermodynamics we under that energy cannot be created or destroyed and that energy can be change into different for example a vehicle can change chemical energy into kinetic energy and how the sun can turn optical energy into electrical energy.

        The second law of thermodynamics is entropy. Entropy is basically the measure of changer from order to disorder. It is impossible for heat to come from cold objects to warm objects without work. In other words something that is cold cannot make something warm naturally. In essence energy cannot be transferred from lower temperature to a higher temperature (Lucas, 2015).

        The third law of thermodynamic is the least common of the three laws. The third law is also known as “absolute zero” because it is at the bottom of the kelvin’s temperature scale In the third law of thermodynamic the temperature is at absolute zero and the entropy is constant (AllAboutScience.org, 2015).An example of how the third law is demonstrated is when water is cool and become solid ice water molecules no longer moves freely as it would in gas form the cooler water get the cooler water gets the closer it is to being “absolute zero” when this happens water has no entropy as the vibrates of molecules will go away (AllAboutScience.org, 2015). Due to the fact that there is no heat energy at absolute zero energy cannot be wasted.

        Fossil fuel is considered a natural fuel formed from the geological remain of living organisms (Dictionary.com, 2016). Even though fossil fuel is a natural gas it does have cons. One of the pros of fossil fuels is that it is cheap and reliable compared to wind and solar which can be unreliable when the climate changes. Another pro is that it is well developed as fossil fuel has been used for decades (Maehlum, 2013). One of the cons of using fossil fuel is that it is a non-renewable energy source. This means that it will eventually run out and is not naturally replenished. Another con is that it contributes to global warming due to most of its energy resources not being green energy sources and the fact that most fossil fuel contain high levels og carbon which is a major contributor to global warming (Maehlum, 2013).