Purchase Solution

Example for laws of thermodynamics

Not what you're looking for?

Ask Custom Question

During the first oil crisis of the early 1970s, a business entrepreneur placed an expensive full-page advertisement in the New York Times, appealing to "the ingenuity of the American people." He offered a cash reward to any inventor who could "raise the temperature of a metal rod by cooling a second rod" and then "generate power by tapping the difference in temperatures."

Use your knowledge of thermodynamics to explain why nobody ever won the reward. Be specific.

Purchase this Solution

Solution Summary

This solution explains how something in nature could not be conducted according to the laws of thermodynamics.

Solution Preview

The laws of TD state that heat would flow from a hotter rod to a cooler one. It is not spontaneous to cool a rod by making another rod hotter without supplying some external energy. Even if you ...

Purchase this Solution


Free BrainMass Quizzes
Classical Mechanics

This quiz is designed to test and improve your knowledge on Classical Mechanics.

Intro to the Physics Waves

Some short-answer questions involving the basic vocabulary of string, sound, and water waves.

Introduction to Nanotechnology/Nanomaterials

This quiz is for any area of science. Test yourself to see what knowledge of nanotechnology you have. This content will also make you familiar with basic concepts of nanotechnology.

Basic Physics

This quiz will test your knowledge about basic Physics.

The Moon

Test your knowledge of moon phases and movement.