When energy is converted from one form to another, a tiny amount is inevitably lost.?

Question

When energy is converted from one form to another, a tiny amount is inevitably lost.

True

False

Answer 1

True, but only because it's lost as other forms of energy.

Answer 2

False you can not destroy energy

http://groups.google.com/group/therevolu...

Answer 3

No so far as we know.  

Because it is difficult to measure all the ways energy (for example heat) is lost in an experiment, it sometimes seems so, but this is an illusion.

There is good science to support that although energy and matter can be exchanged (for example, the sun converts matter into energy), nothing is lost....well probably!

Black holes consume matter and do not radiate equivalently, even according to Stephen Hawking, who has calculated that black holes can (and do) actually radiate, which was not accepted wisdom.

What happens inside the black hole is a mystery by definition, but the diameter of the "event horizon" does grow as matter enters the black hole, so we could assume that either matter is either preserved or converted to energy without any net loss.

Answer 4

True. That's why perpetual motion can't really exist.

Answer 5

People who answered your question have the right idea.  It cannot.  It isn't "lost" as in disappeared, even in nuclear events.

This loss is what was labeled for thermodynamic steam cycles as "entropy."  That's a word also often interpreted to mean falling to "chaos."  Entropy was originally intended to mean what you describe:  energy lost in transition, specifically heat energy lost from steam pressure in its transition to mechanical motion in a steam engine.

The meaning, regarding "chaos," describes movement  from an artificially constructed form, or a natural "higher order," back toward a more stable form, or a natural "lower order," we label as "chaos" only because its not the form we prefer.  This has nothing to do with your question, but you will hear of this extraneous definition of "entropy" so I am making you aware of it.

Answer 6

true and false.

It is true that the energy we plan to take from the conversion will be less than the input energy, so in that sense it is lost.

It is lost in the sense that we can not economically recover it (or we recover it.)

But the energy that escapes still exists.. it may even be a problem for us.  Taking this point of view, even though WE have lost it, it is not lost to that universal system of entropy.

Answer 7

Strictly speaking, this is false: it is a fundamental law of physics that energy is conserved (although it can be "hidden" in other forms, including matter).

But in practice, it is true: all methods of practical energy conversion are not 100% efficient, so some is "lost"; this usually means "becomes a form of energy you don't want" such as heat, noise or light.

As this inefficiency is also based on one of the fundamental laws of physics (requiring that entropy increases with time), technological advances can improve efficiency to be closer to 100%, but it will never reach 100%.

Answer 8

Well, it's not really lost in the sense of "I can't find it" we know were it goes, it goes to some form of non-usable energy such as low level heat, vibration or sound.  People call it loss, however so the answer is probably true.

Answer 9

True and false.

True because the transfer of energy is never 100% b/c some of it is converted to other forms such as: sound, heat, light and other mechanical processes.

False because it is not technically "lost" it is actually transferred to other forms. Remember the Conservation of Energy Law, it cannot be created or destroyed.

Answer 10

False, energy cannot be created or destroyed, niether can matter, it just is "lost" as heat normally.

Answer 11

If the system was perfect, no energy would be lost. But when energy is transfered, some will always inevitably be lost to the surroundings (ie through sound, heat ect). Keep in mind though that there is always a constant amount of energy in the universe... so when you "lose" energy its just being redistributed elsewhere in the universe. Energy can only truely be destroyed in nuclear reactions... but that is already beyond me.

Answer 12

False, you cannot lose or destroy energy, it can only be transferred to other forms.

Answer 13

Energy can neither be created nor destroyed it can only be transfered from one form to another. That's law of conservation of energy.

Answer 14

True. Because nothing is pure and this includes energy

Answer 15

False;

the law of conservation of Energy states that energy can neither be created or destroyed in a closed system..

Answer 16

well... this question cannot be answered correctly, however  you  might want to know that in an ideal world no energy would be lost, but there is no such thing as an ideal world so energy is lost - most energy is usually lost in the form of heat -but if you somehow gain a benefit from that heat, it is not a loss.....Strange is this world we live in, isn't it.

Answer 17

false  

one of the laws of science   energy cannot be created or destroyed it just changes forms

Answer 18

i dont think so, energy is always just converted into other things, it never actually gets used up. that means that there is always the same amount of energy in the world, it just gets bounced around alot.