Editing Conservation of energy (section)

==Status==
In the context of perpetual motion machines such as the [[Orbo]], Professor [[Eric Ash]] has argued at the [[BBC]]: "Denying [conservation of energy] would undermine not just little bits of science - the whole edifice would be no more. All of the technology on which we built the modern world would lie in ruins". It is because of conservation of energy that "we know - without having to examine details of a particular device - that Orbo cannot work."<ref>{{cite news |title=The perpetual myth of free energy |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6283374.stm |access-date=10 October 2022 | work=BBC |date=9 July 2007}}</ref>

Energy conservation has been a foundational physical principle for about two hundred years. From the point of view of modern general relativity, the lab environment can be well approximated by [[Minkowski space]]time, where energy is exactly conserved. The entire Earth can be well approximated by the [[Schwarzschild metric]], where again energy is exactly conserved. Given all the experimental evidence, any new theory (such as [[quantum gravity]]), in order to be successful, will have to explain why energy has appeared to always be exactly conserved in terrestrial experiments.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Maudlin |first1=Tim |last2=Okon |first2=Elias |last3=Sudarsky |first3=Daniel |title=On the status of conservation laws in physics: Implications for semiclassical gravity |journal=Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics |date=February 2020 |volume=69 |pages=67–81 |doi=10.1016/j.shpsb.2019.10.004|arxiv=1910.06473 |bibcode=2020SHPMP..69...67M |s2cid=204575731 }}</ref> In some speculative theories, corrections to quantum mechanics are too small to be detected at anywhere near the current [[TeV]] level accessible through particle accelerators. [[Doubly special relativity]] models may argue for a breakdown in energy-momentum conservation for sufficiently energetic particles; such models are constrained by observations that cosmic rays appear to travel for billions of years without displaying anomalous non-conservation behavior.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Amelino-Camelia |first1=Giovanni |title=Quantum-Spacetime Phenomenology |journal=Living Reviews in Relativity |date=12 June 2013 |volume=16 |issue=1 |pages=5 |doi=10.12942/lrr-2013-5|doi-access=free |pmid=28179844 |pmc=5255913 |arxiv=0806.0339 |bibcode=2013LRR....16....5A }}</ref> Some interpretations of quantum mechanics claim that observed energy tends to increase when the Born rule is applied due to localization of the wave function. If true, objects could be expected to spontaneously heat up; thus, such models are constrained by observations of large, cool astronomical objects as well as the observation of (often supercooled) laboratory experiments.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Carlesso |first1=Matteo |last2=Donadi |first2=Sandro |last3=Ferialdi |first3=Luca |last4=Paternostro |first4=Mauro |last5=Ulbricht |first5=Hendrik |last6=Bassi |first6=Angelo |title=Present status and future challenges of non-interferometric tests of collapse models |journal=Nature Physics |date=March 2022 |volume=18 |issue=3 |pages=243–250 |doi=10.1038/s41567-021-01489-5|arxiv=2203.04231 |bibcode=2022NatPh..18..243C |s2cid=246949254 }}</ref>

[[Milton A. Rothman]] wrote that the law of conservation of energy has been verified by nuclear physics experiments to an accuracy of one part in a thousand million million (10<sup>15</sup>). He then defines its precision as "perfect for all practical purposes".<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Rothman |first=Milton |date=1989 |title=Myths About Science... And Belief in the Paranormal |journal=The Skeptical Inquirer |volume=14 |issue=1 |page=28}}</ref>