Energy can never be destroyed, only transferred. The amount of energy in the universe today is the same amount as there was a million years ago. When the concept of friction occurs on an object, it transfers to static electricity, sound (vibration), and additional movement to the object it comes in contact with. The input will always equal the sum of the outputs of energy.
Friction converts it to heat, all right. That heat then escapes into the universe at large, where it goes to raise the average temperature by some infinitesimally small amount.
It is thus lost, as far as any practical use is concerned, which is the functional equivalent of destruction, in accordance with the law of thermodynamics which says that heat cannot flow uphill.
The view expressed elsewhere here is like saying that when a house burns down it has not been destroyed, its substances were only converted to another form, like ashes for example. In that view, then, destruction never happens.
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Energy can never be destroyed, only transferred. The amount of energy in the universe today is the same amount as there was a million years ago. When the concept of friction occurs on an object, it transfers to static electricity, sound (vibration), and additional movement to the object it comes in contact with. The input will always equal the sum of the outputs of energy.
Friction converts it to heat, all right. That heat then escapes into the universe at large, where it goes to raise the average temperature by some infinitesimally small amount.
It is thus lost, as far as any practical use is concerned, which is the functional equivalent of destruction, in accordance with the law of thermodynamics which says that heat cannot flow uphill.
The view expressed elsewhere here is like saying that when a house burns down it has not been destroyed, its substances were only converted to another form, like ashes for example. In that view, then, destruction never happens.
No, untrue. It converts ususally kinetic energy to heat energy. If it destroyed things, then the brakes of a car would not heat up when applied.