Units of energy Units of energy Because energy is defined via work, the SI unit for energy is the same as the unit of work – the joule (J), named in honor of James Prescott Joule and his experiments on the mechanical equivalent of heat. In slightly more fundamental terms, 1 joule is equal to 1 newton metre and, in terms of SI base units An energy unit that is used in atomic physics, particle physics and high energy physics is the electronvolt (eV). One eV is equivalent to 1.60217653×10 J. In spectroscopy the unit cm = 0.000123986 eV is used to represent
Conservation of energy the heat energy may be written where formula_21 is the temperature and formula_22 is a small change in the entropy of the system. Temperature and entropy are variables of state of a system. If an open system (in which mass may be exchanged with the environment) has several walls such that the mass transfer is through rigid walls separate from the heat and work transfers, then the first law may be written: where formula_24 is the added mass and formula_25 is the internal energy per unit mass of the added mass, measured in the surroundings before the process. The conservation