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Old 28th Jun 2001, 19:39
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Bally Heck
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Turbofan.
We now reach the first law of thermodynamics which roughly states that the energy in a system remains constant but that the form of the energy may be transformed.

The total energy of the system equals the internal energy, which depends only on the thermodynamic state, plus the kinetic energy, which depends on the system's motion, plus the potential energy, which depends on the system's position with respect to the chosen coordinate frame.

Kinetic energy (ie. vibration) may be converted to heat energy. Strike a piece of metal on an anvil for a few minutes and it's temperature will rise. Likewise a bicycle pumps motion produces heat due to the compression of the air.

Thus the vibration of your spacecraft will convert into a temperature increase as molecules and components move. Next time you destroy a credit card, bend it repeatedly and see how it gets warm at the fold.

If there is a heat gradient between the spacecraft and space. ie one is hot and the other cold, this heat energy will radiate from the spacecraft into space in the same way as it radiates from the bar of an electric fire. The rate of radiation is proportional to the square of the difference in temperatures, so a very hot body will begin cooling very quickly but the rate of cooling will reduce as the temperature difference reduces.

Having said all that....the thing would have to be shaking like a dance floor during an earthquake to produce appreciable amountsd of heat.