What is the First Law of Thermodynamics?
With the a little hydrogen, a few balloons and a couple of makeshift rockets, Valeska Ting launches into an explanation of what the first law of thermodynamics is, and why it matters to our...
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So here I have a balloon filled with hydrogen. It has a lot of chemical energy as hydrogen gas, when mixed with oxygen, is a very potent fuel. By igniting the balloon, I add energy and set off a reaction between hydrogen and oxygen that releases a lot of energy in the form of heat. The conservation of energy is one of the fundamental principles of our universe. Simply put, in a closed system, no energy can ever be created or destroyed, only transformed from one form to another. The first law of thermodynamics takes this idea and modifies it for thermodynamic systems. It relates the internal energy of a system to the amount of heat added to the system and the amount of work done by the system. If we look at the explosion again with a thermal camera, you can...
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So here I have a balloon filled with hydrogen. It has a lot of chemical energy as hydrogen gas, when mixed with oxygen, is a very potent fuel. By igniting the balloon, I add energy and set off a reaction between hydrogen and oxygen that releases a lot of energy in the form of heat. The conservation of energy is one of the fundamental principles of our universe. Simply put, in a closed system, no energy can ever be created or destroyed, only transformed from one form to another. The first law of thermodynamics takes this idea and modifies it for thermodynamic systems. It relates the internal energy of a system to the amount of heat added to the system and the amount of work done by the system. If we look at the explosion again with a thermal camera, you can...
