Final answer:
The law of conservation of energy dictates that the original chemical energy in a battery is neither lost nor created but instead transformed or converted from one form to another. Energy remains constant and can only change its form, following the first law of thermodynamics.
Step-by-step explanation:
This is a perfect example of the law of conservation of energy. The original chemical energy within the battery was not lost or created. It was only transformed or converted from one type of energy to another.
When considering a battery, the chemical energy is used to do work within the battery-plate system. In accordance with the law of conservation of energy, if the potential energy within the system decreases, the energy elsewhere in the system must increase equivalently. Analogous to a raised hammer's potential energy being stored in Earth's gravitational field, the energy from the battery is stored in the electric field between the plates. Should this field disappear, similarly to the gravitational field for the hammer, there would be no energy stored.
The law of conservation of energy underscores that energy in the universe remains constant; energy can be neither created nor destroyed, only changed in form. This principle is also aligned with the first law of thermodynamics which applies to both living and non-living systems, demonstrating that despite energy transformations, the total amount of energy before and after any change remains unchanged.