🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <4298@wpi.wpi.edu> jhallen@wpi.wpi.edu (Joseph H Allen) writes:
>Half the energy transfered ALWAYS becomes heat.  In any "clutch" I.E., a
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>device which transfers energy from one side to another until both sides are
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>equal, 1/2 the energy goes into heat.  This is true for both electrical
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>systems and mechanical ones.  If you have one flywheel which is spinning and
>one which isn't and you connect them, 1/2 the energy of the system is lost to
>heat.  No matter how you connect them (I.E., no matter what R is).

Not true for all "device"s.  Take the two-capacitor problem, for instance.
Connect an inductor across the charged-up cap.  This will form an LC
oscillator.  At a certain point in the oscillations, all the energy will be
stored in the inductor.  At that point, add the second cap in parallel to
the first.  The inductor will then charge up both caps, with no loss of
energy.

For mechanical systems, one would use springs, perhaps.

We can transfer energy in arbitrarily small increments using inductors.

Then again, jhallen is probably right for any system where the only energy
storage devices are the two between which energy is being transferred.