Many of us have heard of the "Laws of Thermodynamics", and probably thought that they have useful applications for just engineers. In reality, these principles are proven to be fundamental to everyday life. The First Law of Thermodynamics simply states that energy can be transformed from one form to another, but cannot be created or destroyed. The typical example to illustrate the first law of thermodynamics is an automobile engine, but the human being can also be seen as an engine of energy conversion (See Energy in Nature). Chemical energy stored in fuels is transformed into heat and useful work used to move the car, heat the car, create frictional energy with the pavement, and produce waste energy in the exhaust products. The sum of the energy of these four is exactly equal to the energy of the fuel. Humph!! Let’s think about this for a minute: Does the first law of thermodynamics imply that we could never run out of energy? The answer to this question can be obtained from the Second Law of Thermodynamics.

        Here’s the bad news…The Second Law of Thermodynamics says basically that any energy conversion is inefficient because some of initial energy will get thrown off as heat. In other words, the conversion of other forms of energy into thermal energy is simple but converting thermal energy into other forms is difficult and can never be performed completely, and much less useful energy is typically obtained in conversion of heat to work than in conversion of work to heat. So every time energy is transformed from one state to another there is a reduction in the amount of energy available to perform useful work in the future. This "waste" energy is known as entropy. The Second Law of Thermodynamics says that, in any process, the total amount of entropy (randomness) in the universe must increase. So, is entropy chaos? No, necessarily. Entropy is the driving force behind evaporation, expansion, diffusion, etc. Respiration is one of the many life processes driving by entropy by making the air rush into lungs when the chest expands. So, far from going against entropy, life absolutely requires entropy to function! However, this doesn’t means that entropy should be increased deliberately; for example, by burning fossil fuels.

        The implications of the Second Law of Thermodynamics are clear if we consider that the unavailable energy for society is most often in the form of thermal energy, and the most useful form of energy in society – the electricity – relies so much on conversion of heat to work.