ABSTRACT
Practical applications of thermodynamics include temperature regulation of electronics, heating and air conditioning, automobile engine design, weather prediction, anywhere else where heat is exchanged. A heat engine is any device that borrows heat energy from some reservoir of heat at a high temperature and converts some of it into work plus some wasted heat at a lower temperature. A molecule of gasoline can be thought of as a bunch of atoms separated by compressed springs. The springs are the interatomic forces between atoms. The gas mileage of car is limited by how much energy an engine can extract from a gallon of gas and uses it to move the car. A steam engine is an external combustion engine. External to the engine, fuel is burned to boil the water to generate steam, which drives the engine. A leaf harnesses energy from the sun, by taking in CO2 from the atmosphere and sunlight to generate glucose that feed the plant.
