The First Law of Thermodynamics has been revised and extended

The First Law of Thermodynamics has been revised and extended Image of xaxnar, author by xaxnar Community Sunday, February 26, 2023 at 9:02:47p EST 136 Comments 136 NEW Recommend Story 280 no image description available Argon plasma in Hawkeye Linearly Magnetized Experiment (HLMX) at the University of Iowa. (The work described below took place at the Center for KINETIC Plasma Physics, West Vriginia University, funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation.) The First Law of Thermodynamics is something that comes up all the time in Science Fiction. ...A simple formulation is: "the total energy in a system remains constant, although it may be converted from one form to another." Another common phrasing is that "energy can neither be created nor destroyed" (in a "closed system"). While there are many subtleties and implications, which may be more precisely captured in more complex formulations, this is the essential principle of the First Law. Continue watching GOP congressman from Uvalde school district facing censure after supporting new gun safety laws after the ad It usually gets mentioned in some context where “mysterious unknown forces”, or “alien technology”, or some never before seen “natural phenomenon” is “doing something beyond our science” that is involving energy. The last is what’s the case here: our science has gotten an upgrade. The universe is still running the same way (as far as we can tell), no laws of physics have been broken or bent. No amazing technology is about to appear. (At least not yet.) But it’s a big deal that will only get bigger. A February 22, 2023 story at Phys.org has the basic details: Paul Cassak, professor and associate director of the Center for KINETIC Plasma Physics, and graduate research assistant Hasan Barbhuiya, both in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, are studying how energy gets converted in superheated plasmas in space. Their findings, published in Physical Review Letters, will revamp scientists' understanding of how plasmas in space and laboratories get heated up, and may have a wide variety of further applications across physics and other sciences. note: this is not the plasma associated with blood. This is the plasma that is the fourth state of matter. The basic understanding of the First Law dates back to the 1850s; in simplest form the energy in a closed system may change form, but the total amount remains constant. The qualification is, it has to be a system at equilibrium. What Cassak and Barbhuiya have done is that they have figured out how to extend it to handle more complex situations, where a system is not at equilibrium. It’s going to take a while for all the implications to be understood and applied. From the press release about their work: “We generalized the first law of thermodynamics for systems that are not in equilibrium,” Cassak said. “We did a pencil and paper calculation to find how much energy is associated with matter not being in equilibrium, and it works whether the system is close to or far from equilibrium.” Their research has numerous potential applications. The theory will help scientists understand plasmas in space, which is important for preparing for space weather. Space weather occurs when huge eruptions in the solar atmosphere blast superheated plasma into space. It can cause problems like power outages, interruptions to satellite communications and the rerouting of airplanes. “The result represents a really large step of our understanding,” Cassak said. “Until now, the state-of-the-art in our research area was to account for energy conversion only associated with expansion and heating, but our theory provides a way to calculate all the energy from not being in equilibrium.” “Because the first law of thermodynamics is so widely used,” Barbhuiya said, “it is our hope that scientists in a wide array of fields could use our result.” For example, it may be useful for studying low-temperature plasmas — which are important for etching in the semiconductor and circuit industry — as well as in other areas like chemistry and quantum computing. It might also help astronomers study how galaxies evolve in time. How big is this? ...Likewise, the breakthrough he and Barbhuiya have made will change the landscape of plasma and space physics, a feat that doesn’t happen often. “There aren’t many laws of physics — Newton's laws, the laws of electricity and magnetism, the three laws of thermodynamics, and the laws of quantum mechanics,” said Duncan Lorimer, professor and interim chair of the Department of Physics and Astronomy. “To take one of these laws that has been around over 150 years and improve on it is a major achievement.” Jackie Appel at Popular Mechanics has additional perspective on what this means. ...because it’s no longer 1850 and we’re trying to answer more detailed questions about the universe around us, researchers have long been trying to find a way to apply the first law to systems that are not in equilibrium. While you might [not] have to reckon with many of these systems in your day-to-day existence, they’re very common throughout the universe in such substances as space plasma—found everywhere from the tails of comets to the outer layers of stars. ...To the untrained eye, the solution will probably just look like a dense and confusing group of equations. But to a physicist, the mathematical description of these additional properties looks like opportunity. Potential applications of this work range from chemistry to circuitry and quantum computing to space weather. This kind of adjustment in our understanding of the basic building blocks of physics doesn’t happen often, so when it does, it has the potential to hugely influence the field and those associated with it. It just goes to show that even centuries-old laws can become new again if we look at them hard enough. It’s going to take years for this to ripple through the world of science; many people will be upset, there will be challenges and debate — and a lot of people trying to figure out how to build on this new understanding. This is what can happen when the government and academia invest in basic research. I would be surprised if this doesn’t lead to Nobel prizes, both for this initial work and what will follow from it. And who knows? Maybe one day the space weather mentioned above will be something we’re dealing with more directly, thanks to research like this. Star Trek Enterprise episode "The Catwalk", where the ship has encountered a POLL What's your reaction to this news? Meh. Not really something that matters to me normally. Interesting, but not really sure what it means. I haven't grasped all the implications, but it sounds cool! More of this please. See my comment. Pie. 1923 Votes · Show me the results 17 TAGS #Chemistry #NationalScienceFoundation #Physics #PopularMechanics #Recommended #ScienceFiction #Space #thermodynamics #WestVirginiaUniversity #NonlinearPhenomenaInPlasmas #HasanBarbhuiya #PaulCassak +5 More Was this story worth reading? Recommending stories helps us decide which stories are most important to show our readers. Recommend Story 280 136Comments Join the Discussion Top Heart Surgeon: This Simple Trick Helps Empty Your Bowels Every Morning Guthealthwellness | Sponsored Doctors Stunned: 72 Year Old Grandma Reduces Her Wrinkles With This Method SouthBeachSkinLab | Sponsored Plastic Surgeon Reveals How To Get A Firmer Neck At Home Baverly Hills MD | Sponsored Diabetes Is Not from Sweets! Meet the Main Enemy Of Diabetes Daily-healthtips.com/ | Sponsored The Horrifying Truth About CBD Tommy Chong's CBD | Sponsored © Kos Media, LLC Site content may be used for any purpose without explicit permission unless otherwise specified. 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