Thermodynamics

Thermodynamics States About Energy Conversion Thermodynamics is the branch of science that embodies the principles of energy transformation in macroscopic systems. The general restrictions which experience has shown to apply to all such transformations are known as the laws of thermodynamics. These laws are primitive; they cannot be derived from anything more basic. The first law of thermodynamics states that energy is conserved; that, although it can be altered in form and transferred from one place to another, the total quantity remains constant. Thus, the first law of thermodynamics depends on the concept of energy; but, conversely, energy is an essential thermodynamic function because it allows the first law to be formulated. This coupling is characteristic of the primitive concepts of thermodynamics. The words system and surroundings are similarly coupled. A system is taken to be any object, any quantity of matter, any region, and so on, selected for study and set apart (men

Geology Time

One of the most important discoveries of modern science has been the age of the Earth and the vast length of time encompassed by its history. The scale of this history, in the millions and billions of years, is recognized as geologic time.

Most cultures incorporate some form of creation mythology, for example, the biblical Book of Genesis. In the mid 17th century an Irish churchman Bishop James Ussher added the years in the biblical genealogies and concluded that the Earth was created in 4004 BC. This idea persisted for a long while, although the 18th century French scientist Georges Louis Lectec, comte de Buffon reasoned that the Earth cooled from an originally molten body and that this have required at least 75,000 years.

Buffon had to recant, but development of the principle of uniformitarianism in the late 1700d snd early 1800s provided geologists with new grounds for arguing that the Earth is far older than anyone had imagine.

Similarly, in 1859, Charles Darwin recognized that millions of years were necessary for small evolutionary changes to accumulate and produce the variety of life we see today. Because they lacked definitive, precise data, however, 19th century geologiests could only guess at the age of the Earth. In the meantime, an accurate, relative geologic time scale had been developed, which placed the main events of geologic history in proper sequence.