Energy and the Past!
written by Hazel Ambrose
All credits go to VSauce
Last Updated
05/31/21
Chapters
6
Reads
513
Chapter 4
Chapter 4
Apathy. Ira Glass put it well when he asked his listeners a simple question: Name 10 people from the 15 century.
We have records of more than 10 people but to most of us, they don't matter. In five hundred years radio hosts will be making the same jokes but about us. However, there is a legacy you leave behind that is irreversible.
Immutable and in a way, unforgettable.
To save energy, turn of when in use. Or just keep them on. Energy will be conserved no matter what you do.
Even if you leave all lights on for a year, there will be no less or more energy in the universe. What's really being conserved when we turn off lights are the resources we turn into energy the lights can use.
But if you counted up all the energy in the system, before and after turning the lights on, it would be the same.
Energy also does something else. Unless hindered from doing so, energy will spread out- it will disperse. That is, in so few words the Second Law of Thermodynamics. It's how our universe works. It's why things that happen spontaneously do. Energy spreads. Even when a process locally concentrates energy, like when a crystal forms or life grows. The Second Law isn't violated because of these processes aren't independent of the larger world around them. They aren't 100 percent efficient hindrances can hold back the inevitable spread of energy for a long time. The Second Law doesn't say when energy will disperse - just that when it can, oh it will. Balloons will deflate, objects will fall, hot objects will cool down and perfume sprayed across the room will eventually migrate to your nose even in really still air.
We have records of more than 10 people but to most of us, they don't matter. In five hundred years radio hosts will be making the same jokes but about us. However, there is a legacy you leave behind that is irreversible.
Immutable and in a way, unforgettable.
To save energy, turn of when in use. Or just keep them on. Energy will be conserved no matter what you do.
Even if you leave all lights on for a year, there will be no less or more energy in the universe. What's really being conserved when we turn off lights are the resources we turn into energy the lights can use.
But if you counted up all the energy in the system, before and after turning the lights on, it would be the same.
Energy also does something else. Unless hindered from doing so, energy will spread out- it will disperse. That is, in so few words the Second Law of Thermodynamics. It's how our universe works. It's why things that happen spontaneously do. Energy spreads. Even when a process locally concentrates energy, like when a crystal forms or life grows. The Second Law isn't violated because of these processes aren't independent of the larger world around them. They aren't 100 percent efficient hindrances can hold back the inevitable spread of energy for a long time. The Second Law doesn't say when energy will disperse - just that when it can, oh it will. Balloons will deflate, objects will fall, hot objects will cool down and perfume sprayed across the room will eventually migrate to your nose even in really still air.
