Naked Science Forum

Life Sciences => The Environment => Topic started by: Jamila on 14/12/2010 21:30:03

Title: How does energy flow in a biosphere?
Post by: Jamila on 14/12/2010 21:30:03

Jamila asked the Naked Scientists:
   
Can you please explain why, in the biosphere, matter follows circular pathways but energy flows in a linear fashion?

What do you think?

Title: How does energy flow in a biosphere?
Post by: SteveFish on 14/12/2010 22:43:59

Jamila, please provide some examples of what you are asking about.

Title: How does energy flow in a biosphere?
Post by: CliffordK on 23/12/2010 01:34:30

You need a little more in depth information about your question.

One of the aspects of global wind patterns has to do with the rotation of the earth.

Waves and tides have to have an increase and decrease in the levels...  if everything moved in one direction...  there would be a trough in the middle, and the continents would eventually get covered.  But, gravity wouldn't allow all the matter to be displaced in one direction.

Whirlpools & circular storm patterns also probably have to do with orbital mechanics.

As far as "energy"...  any type of circular or orbiting matter flows certainly can have energy associated with it. 

Electromagnetic radiation (Light, UV, IR, Microwaves, etc) has very little mass, if any.  Thus, any kind of a mass effect would be minimized, and it would tend to travel in a straight line (with the exception of refraction).

Title: How does energy flow in a biosphere?
Post by: Airthumbs on 28/12/2010 21:30:17

Quote from: Jamila on 14/12/2010 21:30:03

Jamila asked the Naked Scientists:
   
Can you please explain why, in the biosphere, matter follows circular pathways but energy flows in a linear fashion?

What do you think?

Maybe an easy way to understand this is that matter makes up everything in the Biosphere, however small or large that might be. The biosphere uses a very basic ingredient to make everything within it and they are Atoms.
Energy enters the biosphere from a source and will eventually be turned into heat and dissipated into nothing. So it starts and ends, hence the reason it is described a being in a linear fashion, whereas matter is always recycled and so continues to circulate through the Biosphere.