• Question: hi do you know the way they say that you cant destroy energy nor can you make but technically if you use up the power in a battery you are using up the energy so basically you are destroying it right?

    Asked by olivia_the_bomb to Ahmed, Francesca, George, James, Nitheen on 13 Nov 2014.
    • Photo: James Sullivan

      James Sullivan answered on 13 Nov 2014:

      Hi Olivia,

      great question.

      After a good think I reckon the answer is that the energy is certainly taken out of the battery – but it’s been converted to other forms of energy such as sound, or heat, or movement (kinetic energy), or light.

      So, while the battery has lost energy – other bits of the universe have gained this energy and overall energy is constant

    • Photo: Francesca Paradisi

      Francesca Paradisi answered on 14 Nov 2014:

      Excellent question. I think the key here is that energy transforms. So say for example it become light if the battery is in a torch. Like James said you take it from the battery and transform it into a different form. Sometimes we can accumulate it, some time it dissipates in the universe.

    • Photo: George Dowson

      George Dowson answered on 15 Nov 2014:

      The energy in that context isn’t being destroyed, but spread out. This is the result of the Second Law of Thermodynamics which says that entropy (how spread out the energy becomes) always increases unless new energy is introduced. So once a battery runs down it’s in a low energy state and needs new energy to pump it up again (like water refilling a reservoir).

    • Photo: Ahmed Osman

      Ahmed Osman answered on 18 Nov 2014:

      Hi olivia_the_bomb
      I Like this question very much
      off course in this case you have converted the energy from one type to other ( from electricity to light or static energy)

      hope this help
      thanks
      Ahmed

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