Transcription
All right, this slide is addressing the, what we call, the first law of thermodynamics. I'm going to write that up here. The, um, the first law of, and then the word is [Music] thermo, um, dynamics. All right.
Now, this law is something that is a, is a law of the universe. It's not just something in biology. This is something that applies in chemistry, physics, whether you're on Jupiter or Pluto or on Earth. It's a law of the universe. Um, and because biology is on Earth and Earth is part of the universe, we have to both obey the laws of the universe. Um, and what the first law of thermodynamics states is that energy can be converted or transformed from one type to another type, but the total amount of energy in the universe is always the same. You cannot create or destroy any energy. Energy cannot be created. Energy cannot be destroyed, but energy can be transformed from one kind to another, and it can be transferred from place to place.
So, just to say one more time, the first law is the energy cannot be created, it cannot be destroyed, but you can take what you've got and convert it from one type to another, and you can transfer it from place to place. And so, let's first of all talk about transferring it from place to place. A good example of that is a, um, pot on the stove. So you have a stove. The stove gets super red hot. Let's say if it's an electric stove, that's a super, super hot stove. You put a pan on it. The pan is metal, and then there's water inside the pan. The heat energy is transferred from the surface of the stove into the metal, and from the metal is transferred into the water inside the pot. And then the molecules of water inside the pot start to move around as the water heats up. We're transferring the energy from the ceramic stove top or the electric rings on the stove into the pot, and then into the water, transferring it from place to place. That's transferring energy.
Energy can also be transformed from type to type. And when I say type to type, what I'm talking about is, um, this slide here. Um, but it seems like my PowerPoint has, uh, frozen. So, uh, I'm going to end here, and we'll talk more about the first law of thermodynamics in the next presentation.