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Technology / Re: Energy losses, Thermodynamics and Efficiency
« on: 30/09/2013 22:43:05 »
Entropy.
As energy moves around a system, it becomes less potentially useful and entropy increases.
Imagine you have a million dollars. You can offer this to a group of people in exchange for their labour to make something you want. Say you employ a thousand people to build a posh yacht. Now each of them has a thousand dollars and you have a yacht. The amount of money hasn't changed but now nobody can afford a yacht.
As energy moves around a system, it becomes less potentially useful and entropy increases.
Imagine you have a million dollars. You can offer this to a group of people in exchange for their labour to make something you want. Say you employ a thousand people to build a posh yacht. Now each of them has a thousand dollars and you have a yacht. The amount of money hasn't changed but now nobody can afford a yacht.