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To: bobjam
In any reaction, you put in more energy than you get out.

True for an endothermic reaction but for an exothermic reaction you get more energy out than you put in.

36 posted on 07/25/2005 6:30:44 PM PDT by WildTurkey (When will CBS Retract and Apologize?)
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To: WildTurkey

Not exactly. An exothermic reaction means the reaction gives off heat. A fire is an exothermic reaction. The Law of Conservation of Energy states that energy can neither be created nor destroyed. In the case of a fire, the potential energy of something flamable (a spotted owl nest) is converted to heat energy, which is then put to something useful (such as roasting the spotted owl).

We can never get more energy out of a reaction than we put into it. We also can never get as much energy out of a reaction as we put into it because some energy is always lost to friction or is absorbed elsewhere (such as some heat from a fire being absorbed by the oven walls instead of the spotted owl).


49 posted on 07/26/2005 4:24:14 AM PDT by bobjam
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