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Energy

Dissipation, and energy transfer in domestic devices

  • 3 things to know
  • Paper 6 (Physics)

Overview

What dissipation means and why dissipated energy is hard to use again, examples from gearboxes, cables, loudspeakers, phones and braking bicycles, and the useful and wasted transfers in torches, drills, fans, heaters and hairdryers powered by batteries or the mains.

What you need to know

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Key term

What is meant by the dissipation of energy?

Key term

Give an example of energy being dissipated in the wires of an electrical circuit.

Key term

What happens to the energy carried away by the sound waves from a loudspeaker?

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

  1. 1

    What is meant by the dissipation of energy?

    Model answer

    Energy spreading out into the surroundings, where it is stored in ways that are no longer useful.

  2. 2

    Why is dissipated energy so difficult to make use of again?

    Model answer

    It has been spread thinly through a large amount of matter at close to the temperature of the surroundings.

  3. 3

    Give an example of energy being dissipated by friction in a machine.

    Model answer

    The moving parts of a gearbox rub together and energy is transferred to the thermal store of the metal and the oil around it.

  4. 4

    Give an example of energy being dissipated in the wires of an electrical circuit.

    Model answer

    Current in a connecting cable warms the cable, so energy is transferred to the thermal store of the wire and the air around it.

  5. 5

    What happens to the energy carried away by the sound waves from a loudspeaker?

    Model answer

    The waves are absorbed by the room and the air, and the energy ends up in their thermal stores.

  6. 6

    Does dissipation of energy break the law of conservation of energy?

    Model answer

    No, the total energy is unchanged; the energy has only been transferred to less useful stores.

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