The law of constant heat summation is one of the most well-known formulas in physics, and the name sounds familiar… to anyone with an interest in heat and energy. According to the law, for every doubling in temperature there is a 1/4 the energy required to maintain that temperature.
We’re using the name of the law because it’s one of the most famous formulas, but it’s also one of the easiest summations to explain. Simply multiply the temperature by 14 to get the energy required to maintain that temperature. In other words, if you double your temperature, you need to spend 14 units of energy to maintain the temp.
To be precise, the formula says that for every doubling of temperature there is a 14 units of energy cost (or work to maintain the temp). We used the example of a room temperature of 80 degrees, so that would be 14 units of work to keep it at 80 degrees. However, we are actually using the energy unit of kilocalories. In other words, the energy unit is not the temperature, but the energy needed to maintain the temp.
This is a great example of how our brains work. If we’re in a cold environment, our body will take in the energy of the environment in units of heat, for example, a warm environment would be an amount of energy of heat equivalent to 1,000,000,000,000 units of heat. In our example, we would say our body would need 14 units of energy to maintain the room temperature at 80 degrees.
