– Why really can’t a machine convert the whole part of energy given to it into work? What causes a fraction of it to be lost, even when there’s no dissipative forces?

Question

– Why really can’t a machine convert the whole part of energy given to it into work? What causes a fraction of it to be lost, even when there’s no dissipative forces?

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Answer 1

If you supply the energy as heat, there are fundamental limits on how efficiently you can convert it to useful work, due to entropy effects. For details, read about the 2nd law of thermodynamics and the concept of free energy.