First Law of Thermodynamics
E314339
The First Law of Thermodynamics is the fundamental physical principle that states energy cannot be created or destroyed, only transformed or transferred, thereby conserving the total energy of an isolated system.
All labels observed (4)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| First Law of Thermodynamics canonical | 1 |
| energy conservation law in thermodynamics | 1 |
| first law of thermodynamics | 1 |
| law of conservation of energy | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T2971085 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: First Law of Thermodynamics Context triple: [On the Conservation of Force, relatedTo, First Law of Thermodynamics]
-
A.
Kelvin–Planck statement of the second law of thermodynamics
The Kelvin–Planck statement of the second law of thermodynamics asserts that it is impossible to construct a cyclic heat engine that converts all absorbed heat from a single reservoir entirely into work without any other effect.
-
B.
Clausius theorem
The Clausius theorem is a fundamental result in thermodynamics that formalizes the second law by relating the cyclic integral of heat transfer over temperature to entropy, showing that this quantity is always less than or equal to zero for any cyclic process.
-
C.
First Law
First Law is a science fiction short story by Isaac Asimov that explores the consequences of a robot apparently violating the foundational Three Laws of Robotics.
-
D.
Clausius statement of the second law of thermodynamics
The Clausius statement of the second law of thermodynamics asserts that heat cannot spontaneously flow from a colder body to a hotter body without external work being performed.
-
E.
third law of thermodynamics
The third law of thermodynamics is a fundamental principle stating that the entropy of a perfect crystal approaches zero as its temperature approaches absolute zero, forming a basis for absolute entropy measurements and low-temperature physics.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: First Law of Thermodynamics Target entity description: The First Law of Thermodynamics is the fundamental physical principle that states energy cannot be created or destroyed, only transformed or transferred, thereby conserving the total energy of an isolated system.
-
A.
Kelvin–Planck statement of the second law of thermodynamics
The Kelvin–Planck statement of the second law of thermodynamics asserts that it is impossible to construct a cyclic heat engine that converts all absorbed heat from a single reservoir entirely into work without any other effect.
-
B.
Clausius theorem
The Clausius theorem is a fundamental result in thermodynamics that formalizes the second law by relating the cyclic integral of heat transfer over temperature to entropy, showing that this quantity is always less than or equal to zero for any cyclic process.
-
C.
First Law
First Law is a science fiction short story by Isaac Asimov that explores the consequences of a robot apparently violating the foundational Three Laws of Robotics.
-
D.
Clausius statement of the second law of thermodynamics
The Clausius statement of the second law of thermodynamics asserts that heat cannot spontaneously flow from a colder body to a hotter body without external work being performed.
-
E.
third law of thermodynamics
The third law of thermodynamics is a fundamental principle stating that the entropy of a perfect crystal approaches zero as its temperature approaches absolute zero, forming a basis for absolute entropy measurements and low-temperature physics.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (50)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
conservation law
ⓘ
law of thermodynamics ⓘ physical law ⓘ |
| alsoKnownAs |
First Law of Thermodynamics
ⓘ
surface form:
energy conservation law in thermodynamics
First Law of Thermodynamics ⓘ
surface form:
law of conservation of energy
|
| appliesTo |
closed systems
ⓘ
isolated systems ⓘ open systems ⓘ |
| assumes |
energy is a state function
ⓘ
internal energy depends on the state of the system ⓘ |
| constrains | possible thermodynamic processes of a system ⓘ |
| contrastsWith | Second Law of Thermodynamics which introduces entropy and irreversibility ⓘ |
| definesSymbol |
Q as heat added to the system
ⓘ
W as work done by the system ⓘ ΔU as change in internal energy of the system ⓘ |
| expressedIn | dU = δQ − δW in differential form ⓘ |
| field |
physics
ⓘ
thermodynamics ⓘ |
| historicalDevelopmentInvolves |
Hermann von Helmholtz
ⓘ
James Prescott Joule ⓘ Julius Robert von Mayer ⓘ Rudolf Clausius ⓘ |
| historicalRoot | principle of conservation of vis viva ⓘ |
| implies |
no device can produce work without energy input
ⓘ
perpetual motion machines of the first kind are impossible ⓘ |
| isFoundationFor |
analysis of heat engines
ⓘ
analysis of refrigerators and heat pumps ⓘ energy conservation in classical thermodynamics ⓘ thermodynamic energy balance equations ⓘ |
| isPartOf | four laws of thermodynamics ⓘ |
| mathematicalForm | ΔU = Q − W ⓘ |
| precedes |
second law of thermodynamics
ⓘ
surface form:
Second Law of Thermodynamics
third law of thermodynamics ⓘ
surface form:
Third Law of Thermodynamics
|
| relatedTo |
Noether's theorem
ⓘ
surface form:
Noether’s theorem
zeroth law of thermodynamics ⓘ
surface form:
Zeroth Law of Thermodynamics
conservation of mechanical energy ⓘ |
| relatesConcept |
energy transfer
ⓘ
energy transformation ⓘ heat ⓘ internal energy ⓘ work ⓘ |
| states |
energy can only be transformed from one form to another or transferred between systems
ⓘ
energy cannot be created or destroyed in an isolated system ⓘ the total energy of an isolated system remains constant ⓘ |
| timePeriodOfFormulation | 19th century ⓘ |
| usedIn |
astrophysics
ⓘ
chemical thermodynamics ⓘ climate science ⓘ engineering thermodynamics ⓘ statistical mechanics ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: First Law of Thermodynamics Description of subject: The First Law of Thermodynamics is the fundamental physical principle that states energy cannot be created or destroyed, only transformed or transferred, thereby conserving the total energy of an isolated system.
Referenced by (4)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
this entity surface form:
first law of thermodynamics
this entity surface form:
law of conservation of energy
this entity surface form:
energy conservation law in thermodynamics