In later combination with the law of energy conservation, the caloric theory still shows a very valuable physical insight into some aspects of heat.

Virtual pairs normally cannot exist for very long before they must annihilate, since they violate the law of energy conservation.

Areas of study include the law of energy conservation, the ideal gas law, specific heat capacities, adiabatic processes (in which entropy is conserved), and moist adiabatic processes.

Some free energy devices imply it is possible to harness perpetual motion which conflicts with the universally accepted physical laws of energy conservation which allow energy to change form, but to be either created or destroyed.