Thermodynamics is clearly based on the assumption that energy is conserved. I ended up discussing this assumption with a fellow student, who states that this assumption can be rigidly justified and means that Noether's theorem proves this.
Everywhere I have read about it, the conservation of energy have been expressly confirmed in experiments and observations, but there is no way to prove this conclusion.
I would like to hear your thought on this subject (aside from that digging deep enough, all scientific facts are based on theories that have been sucessful in predicting experimental results, in some sense.)
My point is that conservation of energy is an assumption that cannot be rigorously proved, while he implies it is completely justified, and keeps referring to the above theorem, no matter what arguments are presented.
Thanks :)
Everywhere I have read about it, the conservation of energy have been expressly confirmed in experiments and observations, but there is no way to prove this conclusion.
I would like to hear your thought on this subject (aside from that digging deep enough, all scientific facts are based on theories that have been sucessful in predicting experimental results, in some sense.)
My point is that conservation of energy is an assumption that cannot be rigorously proved, while he implies it is completely justified, and keeps referring to the above theorem, no matter what arguments are presented.
Thanks :)