Reply #80: You can't both lose it and use it to power the process. [View All]

[rman]

Energy used to power the process is not lost as heat; it is used to (in this case) rip molucules apart and but them together differently.

It's like the % of energy stored in the gas in the tank of your car that is used to actually make your car move - it is the rest of the energy that's lost as heat, noise and vibration. The lost energy plus the kenetic energy created by the engine add up to 100% of what's stored in the gas.

And reversly: energy that's lost as heat is not used to power any process. lost energy results from the fact that the entire process is not 100% efficient - no process is.