The Drinking Bird Toy and Thermodynamics Quiz

The ______ might seem like it could go on forever, without an external source of energy powering it – a perpetual motion machine, in other words. But the toy isn't a perpetual motion machine – because perpetual motion is impossible, according to the laws of physics. One of the reasons is the first law of thermodynamics.

One of the main goals of thermodynamics is to describe the transfer of ______. We’ve already described two processes as a transfer of ______ – work and heat – and they’re both connected to each other. As a thermodynamic system does work, it loses heat. When work is done on a system, it gains heat. So heat is converted to work, and work is converted to heat. Together, the work and heat transferred into or out of t.