Somewhere along the line you may heard of a scientific principle known as the "Conservation of Energy" - this fundamental law says that "energy can be either created nor destroyed, but it can change its form." Now this may sound a bit abstract, but there's a good example, relevant this time of year, of what "conservation of energy" means.

When I was growing up, my house didn't have air conditioning. On hot summer afternoons, despite my mom's objections, I'd open the door to the refrigerator in hopes of cooling off. Though it certainly felt cooler near the 'fridge door, little did I know that the temperature in the kitchen actually went up a bit. This was a cruel consequence of the conservation of energy.

You see, in order to keep the refrigerator cool while the door was open, the refrigerator's compressor had to run continuously. This generated extra heat that offset the cooling provided by opening the door. You can think of that extra heat as resulting from the extra electricity that the compressor needed to stay running. Essentially, energy was being conserved - it just changed its form from electrical energy into heat energy. Tomorrow night, I'll discuss more effective ways to stay cool in the summer.