how do the laws of thermodynamics relate to electricity in power plants?
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an power plant will consume more input than it will produce in output.  even fusion power plants will not be 100% efficient due to transmission loss and transfer loss.
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W/m*K = Watt/(meter*Kelvin)\n\nPower per unit length per unit temperature\n\nWhere power is defined as energy per unit time.
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electricity (î-lèk-trîs´e-tê), class of phenomena arising from the existence of CHARGE. According to modern theory, most ELEMENTARY PARTICLES of matter possess charge, either positive or negative. Two particles of like charge, both positive or both negative, repel each other; two particles of unlike charge are attracted. The electric FORCE between two charged particles is much greater than the gravitational force between the particles. Many of the bulk properties of matter are ultimately due to the electric forces among the particles of which the substance is composed. Materials differ in their ability to allow charge toflow through them. Those that allow charge to pass easily are conductors,  whereas those that allow extremely little charge to pass through are called insulators,  or DIELECTRICS. A third class of materials, called SEMICONDUCTORS, is intermediate. Electrostatics is the study of charges, or charged bodies, at rest. When positive or negative charge builds up in fixed positions on objects, certain phenomena can be observed that are collectively referred to as static electricity. The charge can be built by rubbing certain objects together, such as silk and glass or rubber and fur; the friction between these objects causes ELECTRONS to transfer from one to another with the result that the object losing electrons acquires a positive charge and the object gaining electrons acquires a negative charge. Electrodynamics is the study of charges in motion. A flow of electric charge constitutes an electric current. In order for a current to exist in a conductor, there must be an ELECTROMOTIVE FORCE (emf), or POTENTIAL difference, between the conductor's ends. An electric CELL, a PHOTOVOLTAIC CELL, and a GENERATOR are all sources of emf. An emf source with an external conductor connected from one of the source's two terminals to the other constitutes an ELECTRIC CIRCUIT. Direct current (DC) is a flow of current in one direction at a constant rate. Alternating current (AC) is a current flow that increases in magnitude from zero to a maximum, decreases back to zero, increases to a maximum in the opposite direction, decreases to zero, and then repeats this process periodically. The number of repetitions of the cycle occurring each second is defined as the frequency, which is expressed in HERTZ (Hz). The frequency of ordinary household current in the U.S. is 60 cycles per sec (60 Hz), and electric devices must be designed to operate at this frequency. In a solid, the current consists not of a few electrons moving rapidly but of many electrons moving slowly; although this drift of electrons is slow, the impulse that causes it moves through the circuit, when the circuit is completed, at nearly the speed oflight. The movement of electrons in a current is not steady; each electron moves in a series of stops and starts. In a direct current, the electrons are spread evenly through the conductor; in an alternating current, the electrons tend to congregate along the conductor surface. In liquids, gases, and semiconductors, current carriers may be positively or negatively charged.
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Power is directly related to amperage by the voltage, P=I*V.
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Yes it is.\n\nWikipedia (see source):  "Thermodynamics (from the Greek thermos meaning heat and dynamics meaning power) is a branch of physics that studies the effects of changes in temperature, pressure, and volume on physical systems at the macroscopic scale by analyzing the collective motion of their particles using statistics."\n\nIt is sometimes associated with chemistry (and taught in chemistry classes) because there are important results and laws from thermodynamics that apply to chemical reactions.  But strictly speaking the laws of thermodynamics are not limited to chemical processes, and are not caused by chemical properties.  So it is more generally considered part of physics.
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Electricity is a form of energy.\n\nIt can be generated from other forms of energy, for example, chemical energy (burning fuel, or a battery), mechanical energy (a windmill), nuclear energy (atomic fission reaction like in a power plant).\n\nIn a battery electrical energy is converted from the  potential energy stored in chemicals which is released when they combine.\n\nIn a fuel cell, chemical energy is released in another type of chemical reaction.\n\nNuclear plants, windmills, hydroelectric dams or burning fuel in a generator turns a turbine or motor which moves a coil of wire through a magnetic field which produces energy.\n\nIn thermoelectric energy, heat is turned into electricity when two different metals are heated.
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Energy that enters the system from the surroundings.
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Heat is energy. It can be transformed from heat to another form of energy like mechanical energy, but the the second law of thermodynamics states that for a closed system entropy either increases or stays the same. This means that wasted heat energy in any system either increases or stays the same unless additional energy enters or leaves the system. If the system is the entire universe, then anytime work is done, either none or more heat is produced . . . the universe can't "unheat" or cool itself (as a whole). Pockets of the universe can reduce entropy, but only by shifting that entropy to another location in the universe.\n\nWhat does this mean? It means that all forms of work produce heat as a byproduct. Even wind produces frictional heat, and wind comes from temperature gradients (uneven heat). Electricity is produced by heat (even nuclear fission power or future fusion power heat water to produce steam to turn a turbine which turns a generator that produces electricity). Hydrogen is produced by reforming technology in refineries and requires heat. Hydrogen can be produced from water by using electricity which uses heat. Ion thrusters use electricity (currently from small nuclear power systems in space probes which produce heat to produce the needed electricity). \n\nI don't think that we're going to get away from heat energy anytime soon.
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Props to mathematician.  To expand, a "machine" must transform energy in some way.  The second law of thermodynamics describes that any time energy is transformed, entropy is created.  Whenever entropy is created, the "machine" must expel some energy in order to expel the entropy that has been created (if it doesn't expel the entropy, the machine doesn't run).  So every time a machine does something, it MUST lose some energy, and it cannot run forever.
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According to the Law of the Conservation of Energy, energy is neither created nor destroyed; it is transferred or transformed from one form to the other in an isolated system.
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A good place to start will be to look at the following websites \n\nThermal Energy and States of Matter\nhttp://www.pschweigerphysics.com/thermenergy.html\n\nThermal Energy\nhttp://sol.sci.uop.edu/~jfalward/physics17/chapter6/chapter6.html\n\nThermodynamics and Thermal Physics guides\nhttp://physics.about.com/cs/thermodynamics/\n\nIf your doing a project you might look into "Ocean Thermal energy conservation" as a topic.\n\nOcean Thermal energy conservation is used to generate electricity using the temperature difference of seawater at different depths
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Almost all power plants use some heat source (coal, natural gas, nuclear pile, geothermal heat, concentrated sun rays) to generate steam. The steam turns turbines. The turbines turn generators.\nGenerators generate electricity which is where electromagnetism comes in. A simple model is this: when you move a magnet around a wire you see a current induced in the wire. Now a generator moves a whole bunch of coils of wire around magnets (or moves magnets inside lots of coils of wire) and thus uses electromagnetism to generate electricity.
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In most electric power plants, water is heated and converted into steam, which drives a turbine-generator to produce electricity. Fossil-fueled power plants produce heat by burning coal, oil, or natural gas. In a nuclear power plant, the fission of Uranium atoms in the reactor provides the heat to produce steam for generating electricity.\n\nHeat is produced in a nuclear reactor when neutrons strike Uranium atoms causing them to fission in a continuous chain reaction. Control elements, which are made of materials that absorb neutrons, are placed among the fuel assemblies. When the control elements, or control rods as they are often called, are pulled out of the core, more neutrons are available and the chain reaction speeds up, producing more heat. When they are inserted into the core, more neutrons are absorbed, and the chain reaction slows or stops, reducing the heat. \n  Most commercial nuclear reactors use ordinary water to remove the heat created by the fission process. These are called light water reactors. The water also serves to slow down, or "moderate" the neutrons. In this type of reactor, the chain reaction will not occur without the water to serve as a moderator.
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- All of the above\n\nThe 1st Law of Thermodynamics tells us that energy is neither created nor destroyed, thus the energy of the universe is a constant. However, energy can certainly be transferred from one part of the universe to another. To work out thermodynamic problems we will need to isolate a certain portion of the universe (the system) from the remainder of the universe (the surroundings).
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First Law of Thermodynamics: Energy can be changed from one form to another, but it cannot be created or destroyed. The total amount of energy and matter in the Universe remains constant, merely changing from one form to another. The First Law of Thermodynamics (Conservation) states that energy is always conserved, it cannot be created or destroyed. In essence, energy can be converted from one form into another. Click here for another page (developed by Dr. John Pratte, Clayton State Univ., GA) covering thermodynamics.\n\nok now to answer your question:\nWork=PV=nRT\nWork=(2moles)(8.32)(106-21)\nWork=1414.4J
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Thermodynamic and electrochemical principles applied to metallurgical processes; phase rule, heat of reaction, free energy, activity, thermodynamic equilibrium; thermodynamics of aqueous solutions.
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The conservation law states that energy is neither created nor destroyed but merely changes type. So, when an object slows down it has less kinetic energy and that energy is converted to heat by way of friction.