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Asked by anon-306420 on 16 Dec 2021.
Question: can we get energy from nothing?
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Caroline Roche answered on 14 Dec 2021:
No, you will always need something to generate energy. When we generate energy we are just converting it from one form to another. Whether its burning coal to heat water to turn a turbine to put energy into the grid or using a solar panel to convert light energy.
The key is to generate more energy than we use to generate that energy.
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Dimitris Samaras answered on 14 Dec 2021:
No, it is one of the biggest definitions in Physics that energy is conserved (with mass being a form of condensed energy). You can only convert energy from one form to another (most forms of energy are ultimately potential and/or kinetic energy), or convert mass to energy or vice versa.
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Marianne Morris answered on 14 Dec 2021:
Sadly no, it is one of the fundamental principles of physics that energy cannot be created, only converted from one type to another Sometimes energy may appear to be lost from a system but it is actually converted into a form of energy (often heat) that can dissipate, or spread out.
If only it were possible to create energy from nothing… it might help solve a lot of our energy needs! -
Rea Kozlowski answered on 16 Dec 2021:
Energy appears in different ways heat and work, which then can be transferred to other forms, like electric energy, thermal energy, mechanical energy. So if you want to have a special form of energy, use one of the main kinds and either use it directly (for cooking, e.g.) or transform it into the form you need.
Whilst you might think, for example that wind is nothing, actually it is just a kind of energy. So, no. producing energy out of nowhere is not possible.
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Lots of answers mentioned conservation of energy, this is very good, but from another point of view, think about what is nothing. In our universe, actually most of the energy is ‘dark energy’ which we do not know. If nothing is what we do not know, this would be a interesting question to think about.
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