beginning physics students are often taught the basic concepts of thermodynamics with two phrases: First you can't win. Second, you can't break even. Explain

Question

frostbite · Answer

"You can't win" most be the 1. law of thermodynamics that states that energy can neither be created nor destroyed. It can only change forms. In other words you can’t get more energy out of the system than you put into it.

"You can't break even" most be the 2. law of thermodynamics that states that the entropy of an isolated system not in equilibrium will tend to increase over time, approaching a maximum value at equilibrium. Or as the following that more apeals to the sentence "any transfer of energy will result in some waste of energy." (unless you have 0 K in the system)