Which law states that energy cannot be created or destroyed?

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The law that states energy cannot be created or destroyed is known as the law of thermodynamics, specifically the first law of thermodynamics. This principle asserts that the total amount of energy in a closed system remains constant, meaning energy can only change forms, such as kinetic to potential energy or thermal energy to mechanical energy. This foundational concept is essential in various scientific fields, including physics and chemistry, as it forms the basis for understanding how energy transitions occur in physical processes.

In contrast, the law of conservation of mass focuses on the mass of substances in chemical reactions, emphasizing that mass cannot be created or destroyed but can only change forms. Einstein's theory primarily addresses the relationship between mass and energy, encapsulated in the famous equation E=mc², which describes how mass can be converted into energy, but does not directly state that energy cannot be created or destroyed in a general sense. Newton’s first law pertains to motion and states that an object at rest stays at rest and an object in motion stays in motion unless acted upon by a net external force, which is unrelated to the conservation of energy.

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