What are the difference between the law of conversation of energy and law of degradation?

Answer 1

The difference between the two is that the law of degradation implies that there is a finite non-zero amount of potential energy that is used cause a process to happen. Recent theory suggests that this is caused by the expanding universe: more energy is converted to potential energy since objects in the universe are moving further and further away from each other. It is possible to create a process that will decrease the entropy of a system (in fact that is how we are able to reach temperatures in the microKelvin range), but the overall entropy of a closed system will always be increasing.

This is different from the law of conservation of energy, which does not imply that this quantity exists. In a straight conservation of energy, it is theoretically possible for all the potential energy to converted to kinetic energy and all kinetic energy to be converted to usable potential energy.

It is worth noting that the existence of entropy does not make the law of conservation of energy wrong. Think of it this way: the law of degradation of energy is an addition to the law of conservation of energy that states that some of the energy of a system must be stored as unusable potential energy.

A real world example would be a middleman in a trade. It is theoretically possible that the middleman could buy items and sell them for the same price. However, the middleman would make no money to support himself and would starve. Therefore, he must buy items and then sell them at a higher price, thereby reserving some of the profit for himself. In this example, money would represent energy and the profit that the middleman makes represents the increasing entropy of the system. The total amount of money in the system stays the same, but the middleman must take some money for every transaction he completes in order for the system to keep functioning.

Answer 2

The law of conservation of energy states that energy cannot be created or destroyed, only transformed from one form to another. On the other hand, the law of degradation of energy (or the second law of thermodynamics) states that in any energy transformation, some energy is lost as waste heat, leading to a decrease in the overall quality of energy available for work. Essentially, the conservation law focuses on the quantity of energy, while the degradation law focuses on the quality of energy.