How does heat vanish.

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The question doesn’t get much more detailed, but how does head vanish.
My understanding is that heat is a direct type of energy, and energy cannot be created or destroyed, only change type, but I get that, with a heater for example, electrical energy becomes heat energy, I don’t understand why the heat energy then becomes something else, or indeed what it becomes that isn’t heat, because cold isn’t a type of energy.

In: Physics

7 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

Heat doesn’t vanish, but it spreads out. Heat inherently seeks to travel from areas of higher energy density to areas of lower energy density, as a direct consequence of the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics. As a result, heat never truly disappears, but instead becomes unavailable for usage in various processes.

Note that is also is incredibly important in utilizing heat for energy; because we know that heat *always* moves in a given direction over time, we can take advantage of that movement in order to harness heat energy and use it, which is why every single heat-based power production system functions the way it does.

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