this post was submitted on 17 Feb 2024
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Showerthoughts

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A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. The best ones are thoughts that many people can relate to and they find something funny or interesting in regular stuff.

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If a machine is never 100% efficient transforming energy into work because part of the energy is converted into heat, does it mean an electric heater is 100% efficient? @[email protected]

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[–] ChonkyOwlbear 176 points 8 months ago (23 children)

You know how you turn on an electric heater and the filament begins to glow? That is energy being converted to light, so not 100% efficient.

[–] [email protected] 49 points 8 months ago (13 children)

Doesn’t the light turn into heat anyway as soon as it’s absorbed?

[–] fubbernuckin 42 points 8 months ago (8 children)

I mean if you want to go that route, we could just say that every speaker, light source, motor, etc is 100% efficient at generating heat because all of its energy output will eventually become heat.

[–] vynlwombat 1 points 8 months ago

I suggest we submit proposals to define "100%" and "efficient" before we design the experiment

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