The First Law Of Thermodynamics: Conservation
The first law of Thermodynamics is among the most common and pervasive concepts of our understanding of the physical world. Simply states, this first law, known more commonly as the Law of Conservation of Energy, states, (from Wikipedia, Laws of Thermodynamics):
Energy can neither be created nor destroyed. It can only change forms.
In any process in an isolated system, the total energy remains the same.
For a thermodynamic cycle the net heat supplied by a system equals the net work done by the system.
For we now have three very interesting axioms, each of which provide a first generation of rules for the behavior of matter in nature.
At first, the statement, "Energy can neither be created nor destroyed" is quite remarkable unto itself. This rule implies that the total energy of the Universe is constant and when the Universe performs thermodynamic transactions, while one system may lose energy, another systems must then necessarily gain this energy. In cases that move out of the theoretical applications of this principle, we find that there is an inevitable tendency for some energy in thermodynamic transactions to be "lost" to its surroundings; but this is not a "loss" per se but rather another series of thermodynamic transactions between the two original systems and the outside environment. It is this feature of thermodynamics that makes perpetual motion impossible; the two systems exchanging energy will inevitably lose some of their energy to the outside world, nonetheless the total energy between all systems involved is conserved- the total remains unchanged.
So we have then provided an explanation for the statement, "For a thermodynamic cycle, the net heat supplied by a system equals the net work done by the system," as thermodynamics allows for the transformation of energy between that of work and heat. Once again, the total energy of the system remain constant, but it is assumed that no energy is lost to the outside environment, in this ideal case.
All of this raises an interesting question regarding the energy that does escape into the environment? What of the potential to do work that is continually being lost into space? What is that energy being converted into? We will examine this question and the fallout from speculating at an answer in later sections.
The truly important concept to take away from this is not simply that "Energy can neither be created nor destroyed," because the cornerstone to the genesis of our universe and its evolution into the now has been a story of transformation.
Energy is neither created nor destroyed. Energy can only be transformed. The concept of transformation means that hosting all that there ever was and ever will be, will come about through cycles of transformation; processes of simple addition and subtraction; combination and separation; increases in complexity and disintegration into simpler forms.
In the coming sections, we examine the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics, which will provide us with the general outcomes of thermodynamic transactions, and begin to examine the role of Gibonacci Sequences in all of this.
