ELI5: If perpetual motion machines don't exist, what is powering the earth's natural systems? (Plate tectonics, water cycle, orbit) : explainlikeimfive
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Physics ELI5: If perpetual motion machines don't exist, what is powering the earth's natural systems? (Plate tectonics, water cycle, orbit)ELI5: If perpetual motion machines don't exist, what is powering the earth's natural systems? (Plate tectonics, water cycle, orbit) (self.explainlikeimfive)
Perpetual motion machines do not exist because energy has to come from somewhere. However earth's natural systems are not considered perpetual motion because the energy always comes from somewhere. Plate Tectonics are powered by the energy of Earth's molten core which moves to Earth's surface by way of cracks between the tectonic plates. You see evidence of this in the volcanoes in islands in the oceans. Hawaii and other islands were created by such lava flows that caused the island to grow bigger and bigger.
The water cycle is powered by the radiant energy from the Sun that causes water to evaporate and rise into the air as steam. When it goes high enough, it cools and become clouds and then condenses around particulates in the air and fall to the ground as rain. the rain either re-evaporates into the air, or it sinks into the ground until it meets underground rivers and makes its way to the oceans and lakes where it evaporates there. A wholly remarkable system, that.
