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From: mwg@petrus.UUCP (Mark Garrett)
Newsgroups: net.physics
Subject: Re: space heaters ARE 100% efficient
Message-ID: <423@petrus.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 25-Jul-85 14:20:30 EDT
Article-I.D.: petrus.423
Posted: Thu Jul 25 14:20:30 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 27-Jul-85 00:02:22 EDT
References: <291@greipa.UUCP> <694@charm.UUCP> <330@dcl-cs.UUCP>
Organization: Bell Communications Research, Inc
Lines: 12

++
> Ahem , forgive me if i'm wrong but if I remember my thermodynamics
> correctly ( and I will undoubtedly be corrected if wrong ) surely
> a little thing called entropy prevents ANY transfer of energy from
> being 100% efficient.

Sorry to do this, but yes, you blew it!  You can have 100% efficient
energy transfer if you degrade the energy into a less useful form
(to put it colloquially).  Energy which is wasted in a transfer is usually
turned into heat, which is a pretty low-grade form of energy.  If you
are heating a room, you can convert all the energy from your source.
-Mark