Rubbing our hands together for warmth and rubbing two pieces of wood together to start a fire are two ways of converting work into heat. However, converting heat into work is not so easy. This process needs to be aided with a heat engine. A heat engine is any device that changes internal energy into mechanical work. According to Hewitt, "The basic idea behind a heat engine, whether a steam engine, internal combustion engine, or jet engine, is that mechanical work can be obtained only when heat flows from a high temperature to a low temperature (Hewitt 475)." However, all the heat from the high temperature is not converted into work. Some heat flows into work, but most is in lost low temperature. If we wanted to know how much heat can be converted into work, we would have to find the Carnot efficiency. The Carnot efficiency of a heat engine is the ideal maximum percentage of input energy that the engine can convert to
Rubbing our hands together for warmth and rubbing two pieces of wood together to start a fire are two ways of converting work into heat. However, converting heat into work is not so easy. This process needs to be aided with a heat engine. A heat engine is any device that changes internal energy into mechanical work. According to Hewitt, "The basic idea behind a heat engine, whether a steam engine, internal combustion engine, or jet engine, is that mechanical work can be obtained only when heat flows from a high temperature to a low temperature (Hewitt 475)." However, all the heat from the high temperature is not converted into work. Some heat flows into work, but most is in lost low temperature. If we wanted to know how much heat can be converted into work, we would have to find the Carnot efficiency. The Carnot efficiency of a heat engine is the ideal maximum percentage of input energy that the engine can convert to