Compare energy transfer in a food chain to engery transfer in a food web?

Food "chains" have sort of become obsolete. When I first learned about them I was in elementary school and by the time I got to high school they had stopped studying food chains and moved on to food webs. I was first taught about food chains using a "field" environment. The sun makes the grass grow, the grass gets eaten by a grasshopper, the grasshopper gets eaten by a mouse, the mouse gets eaten by a hawk. But now they teach about food webs. The sun makes the grass grow, the grass could be eaten by a grasshopper or something else, then the grasshopper gets eaten by a rat, mouse, or maybe it becomes your kittens new play toy, the rat or mouse could be eaten by a hawk or any other type of bird that eats those kind of critters. It's all connected now unlike it just being a straight line like it was when I was in elementary school.