Free energy may refer to:
In science:
- Thermodynamic free energy, the energy in a physical system that can be converted to do work, in particular:
- Helmholtz free energy, the energy that can be converted into work at a constant temperature and volume
- Work content, a related concept used in chemistry
- Gibbs free energy, the energy that can be converted into work at a uniform temperature and pressure throughout a system
- Variational free energy, a construct from Information theory that is used in Variational Bayesian methods
In pseudoscience:
- Free energy device, a hypothetical device that creates energy in a hypothetical isolated system, i.e. without any external input, thereby contradicting the laws of thermodynamics
- Free energy suppression, a conspiracy theory that advanced energy technologies are being suppressed by special interest groups
In music
- Free Energy (band), a 5-piece rock band on DFA Records
Famous quotes containing the words free and/or energy:
“I am always glad to think that my education was, for the most part, informal, and had not the slightest reference to a future business career. It left me free and untrammeled to approach my business problems without the limiting influence of specific training.”
—Alice Foote MacDougall (1867–1945)
“A government deriving its energy from the will of the society, and operating, by the reason of its measures, on the understanding and interest of the society ... is the government for which philosophy has been searching and humanity been fighting from the most remote ages ... which it is the glory of America to have invented, and her unrivalled happiness to possess.”
—James Madison (1751–1836)