degradation of energy

American  

noun

Thermodynamics.

1. the principle that during any irreversible process the total energy available to do work decreases.

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Example Sentences

There is in the realm of spirit which is our nature and our world no law of either the conservation or the degradation of energy.

From Progress and History by Marvin, Francis Sydney

There is indeed a constant tendency towards the degradation of energy, and a constant equalizing process which may bring to an end the present order of things in the universe.

From The Relations of Science and Religion The Morse Lecture, 1880 by Calderwood, Henry

The law of the degradation of energy does not bear essentially on magnitudes.

From Creative Evolution by Mitchell, Arthur

To his scientific fellows, however, his greatest achievements were in the field of pure science, especially in connection with his thermodynamic researches, including the doctrine of the dissipation or degradation of energy.

From The Glories of Ireland by Lennox, P. J.