20
thousands of years ago. In statistical terms exergy is “the maximum fraction of an
energy form which (in a reversible process) can be transformed into work.”
Anergy – The remaining part, corresponding to waste heat, is called anergy
(Honerkamp 2002)—the two, exergy (from the Greek ex + ergon for “from work”)
and anergy
3
(from the Greek an + ergon for “without or no work”), make up the two
sides of the energy balance sheet. This holds for any local analysis of a discreet or
closed system.
In all irreversible systems, low-quality, anergetic, waste heat increases as highquality exergy decreases. The trend in all isolated systems, no matter how small or
large, follows this one-way progression. Without an outside exergy source to contribute to the plus side of the balance sheet, the system will continue to transform
high-quality types of energy, able to perform work, into disorganized, low-quality
types of energy unable to do work.
Entropy – This transformation is called entropy. Rudolph Clausius introduced
the term in 1865 as a counterpart to energy replacing the Greek root ἔργον (érgon,
“work”) with τροπή (tropḗ, “transformation”).
I hold it to be better to borrow terms for important magnitudes from ancient languages, so
that they may be adopted unchanged in all modern languages, I propose to call the magnitude S the entropy of the body, from the Greek word τροπὴ, transformation. I have intentionally formed the word entropy so as to be as similar as possible to the word energy; for
the two magnitudes to be denoted by these words are so nearly allied in their physical
meanings, that a certain similarity in design appears to be desirable. Clausius (1867)
Nineteenth-century thermodynamic energy concepts were key in describing how
both energy could be transformed by both natural and mechanical processes. These
developments in knowledge about thermal energetic systems were part of a much
larger scientific system of knowledge that had been growing for centuries and continues now.
2.3 Four Primary Forces
All change is fundamentally made possible and limited by forces constituting all of
nature. At the start of the sixteenth century, Nicolaus Copernicus started a 500-yearlong scientific revolution that continues to this day when he described solar- centered
planetary motion for the first time.
4
Using better tools and developing more precise
mathematical models, Johannes Kepler in 1609 (Donahue trans. 1992) and Galileo
3 Anergy is not a classical thermodynamics term. Coined by the Head of Strategic Planning of Shell
International Petroleum, Guy Jillings, in the 1980s, it has since been adopted by both statistical
physics and immunobiology. It is a useful direct counterpart to exergy.
4 This scientific and technological revolution is founded on his observations of planetary revolutions that he first distributed in his Little Commentary (1514). A few decades later he published
mathematical descriptions of planetary motion in De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (On the
Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres 1543).
2 The Energy Essential: Physical Forces Animate All Things
thousands of years ago. In statistical terms exergy is “the maximum fraction of an
energy form which (in a reversible process) can be transformed into work.”
Anergy – The remaining part, corresponding to waste heat, is called anergy
(Honerkamp 2002)—the two, exergy (from the Greek ex + ergon for “from work”)
and anergy
3
(from the Greek an + ergon for “without or no work”), make up the two
sides of the energy balance sheet. This holds for any local analysis of a discreet or
closed system.
In all irreversible systems, low-quality, anergetic, waste heat increases as highquality exergy decreases. The trend in all isolated systems, no matter how small or
large, follows this one-way progression. Without an outside exergy source to contribute to the plus side of the balance sheet, the system will continue to transform
high-quality types of energy, able to perform work, into disorganized, low-quality
types of energy unable to do work.
Entropy – This transformation is called entropy. Rudolph Clausius introduced
the term in 1865 as a counterpart to energy replacing the Greek root ἔργον (érgon,
“work”) with τροπή (tropḗ, “transformation”).
I hold it to be better to borrow terms for important magnitudes from ancient languages, so
that they may be adopted unchanged in all modern languages, I propose to call the magnitude S the entropy of the body, from the Greek word τροπὴ, transformation. I have intentionally formed the word entropy so as to be as similar as possible to the word energy; for
the two magnitudes to be denoted by these words are so nearly allied in their physical
meanings, that a certain similarity in design appears to be desirable. Clausius (1867)
Nineteenth-century thermodynamic energy concepts were key in describing how
both energy could be transformed by both natural and mechanical processes. These
developments in knowledge about thermal energetic systems were part of a much
larger scientific system of knowledge that had been growing for centuries and continues now.
2.3 Four Primary Forces
All change is fundamentally made possible and limited by forces constituting all of
nature. At the start of the sixteenth century, Nicolaus Copernicus started a 500-yearlong scientific revolution that continues to this day when he described solar- centered
planetary motion for the first time.
4
Using better tools and developing more precise
mathematical models, Johannes Kepler in 1609 (Donahue trans. 1992) and Galileo
3 Anergy is not a classical thermodynamics term. Coined by the Head of Strategic Planning of Shell
International Petroleum, Guy Jillings, in the 1980s, it has since been adopted by both statistical
physics and immunobiology. It is a useful direct counterpart to exergy.
4 This scientific and technological revolution is founded on his observations of planetary revolutions that he first distributed in his Little Commentary (1514). A few decades later he published
mathematical descriptions of planetary motion in De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (On the
Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres 1543).
2 The Energy Essential: Physical Forces Animate All Things