Free Energy

Free energy may refer to:

In science:

  • Thermodynamic free energy, the energy in a physical system that can be converted to do work, in particular:
    • Helmholtz free energy, the energy that can be converted into work at a constant temperature and volume
    • Work content, a related concept used in chemistry
    • Gibbs free energy, the energy that can be converted into work at a uniform temperature and pressure throughout a system
  • Variational free energy, a construct from Information theory that is used in Variational Bayesian methods

In pseudoscience:

  • Free energy device, a hypothetical device that creates energy in a hypothetical isolated system, i.e. without any external input, thereby contradicting the laws of thermodynamics
  • Free energy suppression, a conspiracy theory that advanced energy technologies are being suppressed by special interest groups

In music

  • Free Energy (band), a 5-piece rock band on DFA Records

Famous quotes containing the words free and/or energy:

    But that I love the gentle Desdemona,
    I would not my unhousèd free condition
    Put into circumscription and confine
    For the sea’s worth.
    William Shakespeare (1564–1616)

    Perhaps catastrophe is the natural human environment, and even though we spend a good deal of energy trying to get away from it, we are programmed for survival amid catastrophe.
    Germaine Greer (b. 1939)