5 ms·

Energy is about the only resource where this doesn't hold true.

vixen99 11y ago
In theory at least, all non-radioactive elemental resources are recoverable from whatever combinations in which they are found, given sufficient energy and information.
- PepeGomez 11y ago
  Exactly.
jdmichal 11y ago
Energy is the only resource I know about where there is a physical law stating that this must be true. (To be fair, you could have less energy offset by more mass. But the point stands.)
- PepeGomez 11y ago
  Not if the thermodynamic laws hold true.
  - jdmichal 11y ago
    ... That's exactly what I was referring to? You seem to be confused. Your responded to a post stating that energy is never destroyed, with the sentence: "Energy is about the only resource where this doesn't hold true."
    - PepeGomez 11y ago
      Once you use the energy and it turns into heat, you can no longer use it.
      - jdmichal 11y ago
        First, heat is energy. Second, you can use heat as heat. Third, you can use heat to boil water to turn a turbine to create electricity, which you can use to do very many things, including create heat.
        PepeGomez 11y ago
        No, you can't do that. If you could do that, you could build a perpetuum mobile.
        jdmichal 11y ago
        Yes, you can: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waste_heat_recovery_unit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waste_heat_recovery_unit Now, whether we can effectively use the energy is an entirely other question. There's plenty of technical limitations. But in a closed system there's no reason an object cannot have perpetual motion with perfect energy recovery. Of course, closed systems don't help us, because they cannot exert useful work outside of the system.
        PepeGomez 11y ago
        You can't. You can increase the efficiency that way, but you can't use it to produce limitless energy. We wouldn't be burning fossil fuels if that was an option.
        jdmichal 11y ago
        You're not "producing" limitless energy. You're reusing the existing energy, because the energy cannot be destroyed. Again, there's no reason why this can't be done within a closed system, except for our technical limitations. Indeed, tracking and recovering energy is the entire idea behind reversible computing. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reversible_computing#Physical_reversibility https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reversible_computing#Physical_...

In theory at least, all non-radioactive elemental resources are recoverable from whatever combinations in which they are found, given sufficient energy and information.

PepeGomez 11y ago
Exactly.

jdmichal 11y ago

Energy is the only resource I know about where there is a physical law stating that this must be true. (To be fair, you could have less energy offset by more mass. But the point stands.)

PepeGomez 11y ago
Not if the thermodynamic laws hold true.
- jdmichal 11y ago
  ... That's exactly what I was referring to? You seem to be confused. Your responded to a post stating that energy is never destroyed, with the sentence: "Energy is about the only resource where this doesn't hold true."
  - PepeGomez 11y ago
    Once you use the energy and it turns into heat, you can no longer use it.
    - jdmichal 11y ago
      First, heat is energy. Second, you can use heat as heat. Third, you can use heat to boil water to turn a turbine to create electricity, which you can use to do very many things, including create heat.
      - PepeGomez 11y ago
        No, you can't do that. If you could do that, you could build a perpetuum mobile.
        jdmichal 11y ago
        Yes, you can: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waste_heat_recovery_unit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waste_heat_recovery_unit Now, whether we can effectively use the energy is an entirely other question. There's plenty of technical limitations. But in a closed system there's no reason an object cannot have perpetual motion with perfect energy recovery. Of course, closed systems don't help us, because they cannot exert useful work outside of the system.
        PepeGomez 11y ago
        You can't. You can increase the efficiency that way, but you can't use it to produce limitless energy. We wouldn't be burning fossil fuels if that was an option.
        jdmichal 11y ago
        You're not "producing" limitless energy. You're reusing the existing energy, because the energy cannot be destroyed. Again, there's no reason why this can't be done within a closed system, except for our technical limitations. Indeed, tracking and recovering energy is the entire idea behind reversible computing. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reversible_computing#Physical_reversibility https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reversible_computing#Physical_...