Equation 4: e = 1 Tcold/Thot
where: e = efficiency of energy use Tcold = the temperature of the environment surrounding the heat engine Thot = the internal operating temperature of the engine This is the equation for the efficiency of a heat engine (your car is a heat engine unless you have an electric model). An e = 1 is 100% efficiency, meaning 100% of the energy gets used to do what you want to do with no wasted, unrecoverable energy. An e = 0 is an efficiency of zero with none of the energy going to what you want to do and all of the energy being wasted or in unrecoverable forms. Question 9: Is it possible to achieve 100% efficiency, in theory, by lowering the temperature of the environment surrounding the heat engine (Tcold)? Why or why not? Theoretically yes it is possible. For this to happen the surrounding environment must be lowered (Tcold), since we can see the temperature approaches zero, and would theoretically reach absolute zero (e=1 which would be 100 efficiency). Question 10: Is it possible, in practice, to achieve 100% efficiency by lowering the temperature of the environment surrounding the heat engine (Tcold)? Why or why not? It is NOT possible. This is because the heat surrounding the engine cannot be removed nor can a heat engine maintain a stable temperature (which would equal 100% efficiency). Question 11: Is it possible to achieve 100% efficiency, in theory, by raising the internal operating temperature of the heat engine (Thot)? Why or why not? Theoretically yes, it is possible. Using the equation (Tcold)/T(hot), if (Thot) was raised to have an infinite value, (Tcold) would then be capable to reach zero.
Question 12: Is it possible to achieve 100% efficiency, in practice, by raising the internal operating temperature of the heat engine (Thot)? Why or why not? This is NOT possible. (Tcold) will always remain greater than 0 despite what happens to (Thot), while in practice. Because of this you cannot achieve 100% efficiency. Question 13: If your car is not electric, it is a heat engine and is subject to the efficiency equation. Is it possible to build a car, using any kind of burning fuel, that is 100% efficient? Explain. This is NOT possible. Again, you cannot remove all the heat from the surrounding environment. Also, heat from the burning fuel will also escape into the environment.