Energy
Folks, I must tell you; I may be dumber than a board... but, I think the biggest screw up in the Science of Physics is__ really understanding the definition, and concept of Energy!
Energy is only a Measurement!
This Measurement is, Only is and, Always was, of Work Done!
Please, a moment of silence, to let this soak in...
Energy is not an entity !!!
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§ "Energy is the capacity or ability to do work, and is always measured as work done..."
§ Please note: there is also the general definition, or concept of energy being activity or more accurately increased activity, or a higher activity as opposed to less activity. This activity can apply to anything. But, it is a variable comparison measurement that cannot go below zero. No activity, is just that, no activity. Anything more than zero is either new activity or continued existing activity. Expanding this a bit... work is an activity of motion of matter interacting with pressure upon other matter.
(I might mention that Work can be productive or non-productive... constructive or destructive... laborious or playful... intentional or un-intentional.)
Below under relevant quotes, the first ten quotations, are not to prove all swans are white, by looking at a million white swans... but to show old and new science, basically uses the same definition for: energy...
I may be old school, but I have been under the belief that measurements are comparisons of things; to standards set up by mankind. We measure length, area, volume, weight, pressure, intensity, flow, temperature, work done, and quite a few other items I probably missed.
These measurements are in inches, feet, meters, miles, square feet, ounces, pounds, grams, liters, cups, quarts, gallons, barrels, pounds per square area, lumens, minutes, and degrees... for examples. Work (done) can be measured in horse power, ergs, joules, watts, dynes, British thermal units and calories. To be meaningful these measuring units require time, and are specified such as: kilowatts per hour...
Think of this way: Can you fill a box with measurements? Such as inches? It is easy to fill a box with one inch diameter balls, but in actuality the box is just filled with similar specific sized balls, displacing the air that was there first.
I guess it is a bit misleading, since, if you fill you pocket with any matter; that matter, has some potential, but not measured yet, and can be a comparison estimate, of the measure of the "capacity to do work" (energy), as does all matter. Depending upon what the mass of the matter in your pocket... there can be more or less capacity to do work. But, like the one inch diameter of the afore mentioned balls, it is still just measurement; which has not been performed yet, and the measurement is not a physical entity, but the matter in you pocket is! It is like having a cubic foot of geometric points.
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(01-11-11) So why do we have the concept Energy? Well, it sort of started with Sir Isaac Newton when he wrote his Principles of Natural Philosophy. They were in Latin, and here is what he wrote, from my translated version. It is his second law, in the chapter Axioms, or Laws of Motion, where much ado is focused from. He wrote: Law II... "The change of motion is proportional to the motive force impressed; and is made in the direction of the right line in which that force is impressed." This second law was in reference to a body of matter mentioned in his first law which reads as: Law I... "Every body continues in its state of rest, or of uniform motion in a right line, unless it is compelled to change that state by forces impressed upon it." What people generally subscribe to Newton writing, is: "force equals mass times acceleration", and or "If a body is set into motion, it is said to have had a force act upon it." Actually I only found that he wrote, Law II, as I quoted above, and not these last two concepts of it. And also, I did not find the mathematical concept of Law II, written as: F = ma, either. Anyway the problem got rolling with the word: "Force" in Law II. What is a force? How do I design machines and etc., with the concept Force...?
Sir Isaac did write, under Definition IV, "An impressed force is an action exerted upon a body, in order to change its state, either of rest or of uniform motion in a right line."
What he wrote, that I quoted above... gives us all the clues to solve the problem that I believe exists with the concept of energy. Sir Isaac Newton did not create, state, or use the physics concept of energy, anywhere!
The word "impressed", means something was pushed or pressed upon a body. To push or press means; to exert or bring pressure to bear upon a body. Well now... presently within the standards of our International System of Units, or (SI) for short, we have what is called the "Newton". I quote: "The newton (symbol N) is the SI derived unit of force." And, how do I "derive" a newton...? Well, I force a mass of one kilogram of matter a distance of one meter in one second, and say; Oh Boy; I have exerted a force of one newton. But, how did I make the one kilogram of matter move? I simply pushed it! Pushed? Isn't that pressure applied? Well, yes. And how much pressure did I apply? Well enough to get the body one meter in one second, which seems to fit: "The pascal (symbol Pa) is the SI derived unit of pressure..." And what does that mean? Well a pascal "is a measure of force per unit area, defined as one newton per square meter." Thus a newton per square meter is a pressure measurement. This pressure takes a body at rest or zero, and zooms it up to a rate of some speed at the end of one second. If it was already in motion and covered one meter distance in one second it is said it has a speed of one meter in one second, or one meter per second. When stated that the body was accelerated, it is one kilogram per second per second. The body is going some distance in one second, and is increasing its speed at some rate in the same second. Sort of: mass motion location change per one second, and mass rate of travel change per one second.
But a body at rest resists pressure to move it, and this pressure is measured as it at rest mass (explained in mass section herein). When starting to move, there is a differential of pressure across the body in motion, which continues until I quit pushing upon it. This means if we try to now stop the forward motion of the body, there requires more reverse pressure than the original at rest pressure, it had back at the start. I call this increase in forward pressure... Directional Mass. It takes reverse pressure to stop it. If stopped, it would be again in its at rest condition once more. But, while in the new forward motion the body gained mass... but__ it also lost mass in the reverse condition, equal to the forward gain. This is the conservation of mass... which is really a conservation of motion. (It is and has been a misnomer of making mathematical calculations for energy, and calling it a conservation of energy. Energy is an observance of activity, of motions. This observance measurement has been given values, which have turned into concepts, that seem as a real entity, or fundamental of the Universe. Not so! As Christiaan Huygens related in the 1650's: "energy is not like matter; energy does not have size, shape or occupy space; and energy does not have inertia." "Instead it was defined that energy is a measure of the ability of physical system to perform work..." This ability can also be described by other standard derived SI measures. However science has a difficult time of equating pressure and motion to many of the facets of science today. For example: Planck's constant is being considered presently for the possibility, of being a way to eliminate the physical standard body now used as the kilogram mass value for matter. But, Planck's constant, a numerical value, has been called a quantum (or quantity) of energy. I am not sure how you get an bucket full of energies? As I see it, a quantity of light photons in a wave format that is synchronous or matching the resonance of matter electron frequencies, and has incoming pressures such that they can pressure electrons out of there existing state to become free electrons, so to speak; is what happens for the photoelectric phenomenon. The amount of work done to pressure this electron, to its new state, is the value Planck came up with. It is light pressure at a particular frequency and pressure; and direction; and impulses; that do a work scenario. There is lots and lots of other light frequencies, that do not meet these criteria, but still have forward impulse pressure; that, can, and do exert pressure against matter upon impact. "All__ electromagnetic radiation can and will exert pressure upon any matter it impacts. Planck's constant is just related to how much work it is to kick an electron free, and this is done at the very small visible range portion of the whole light frequency spectrum. However, it can be measured as just what it is, as: "6.626068 x 10-34 kg /s", which can be converted to newton, and pressure force of pascal, depending upon what is desired...
1 Pa ≡ N/m² and 1 N ≡ 1 kg·m/s².
Lets go back to Newton for a bit... Impressing, pressuring, or simply pushing a body of one kilogram mass, and measuring it as one newton can be explained as: an origin or cause of the force; was physical motions of the body leveraged to the earth, up and on through to my hand; with my heart pumping blood with pressure to expand muscles, and extend my arm and hand, to exert and have a force action. This force action, pushed with pressure against a body of one kilogram mass weight causes it to accelerate. We measured the kilogram for weight. We measured the time the body was in motion, covering a distance of one meter. We measured the pressure with a spring gauge as it is pushed. We saw motion. I felt resistance pressure, inertia, against my hand. These are real things we do, and observe...
If now, I say okay, we had one newton acting through a distance of one meter, thus we have a measurement of a joule of work. If I get another kilogram block of matter, set out a one meter distance, and etc... without doing anything... it is easy to say... that it will be one joule of work if I do the same force actions.
Using energy in the incorrect context, simply put, is like: If it takes one horse to drag a plow some distance through the soil... later we said, we did that work with one horsepower... and the next day we tell the neighboring farmer he can use our plow, toil the soil as we did; and all that is required, is just one horsepower. His reply was: But, don't I still need a horse?
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This very same 1 kg body set in motion, afore mentioned, if without any friction or other things to impede its forward motion will continue as Newton related in Law I, with a new ability to push some other body with a pressure of one pascal. I state further on... pressure is a fundamental of the Universe. And it is the only force action. This is a big pill to swallow! But, consider this: Without pressure, your blood, would not flow, and your lungs will not work. All your senses require pressure in some manner to function. No measurements can be made without pressure. And.. the Universe cannot even exist without pressure!
Energy, was and is just a measurement for mathematical convenience. Energy is not even close to being a reality or fundamental of the Universe. It is tough to break a habit. It is said that it only takes about 21 days to create a habit. The habit of physics energy usage has been around for about 300 years. I feel it is probably harder to realize the habit, and use it correctly, than to just go along as usual...
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Often you will read or hear of, transferring or releasing energy. There is no foo foo powder or magic solution that is being transferred or exchanged! When work is being done by an entity, it is reducing its capacity to do work__ but, actually its activity of motion is decreasing__; but the capacity to do work is increasing within another entity, with its activity of motion increasing in new rates and directions of state. There are actions between entities that cause these changes of abilities of bodies, but it is not like a baton that is passed in a relay race. If two equal cue balls collide head on at equal speeds... they both come away with an equal ability do work, measurement, of energy! They each lost, and then gained. However... the gain is now the amount of ability to do work in the reverse direction for both of them. And what they have is increased motion, or increased ability to do work by pressure in the direction they are going... and this forward pressure it its mass if measured in opposition to this pressure. They each lost the ability to do work in their prior forward directions, but gained a redirected motional equal ability to do work each in their reverse directions. I will go into the mechanics of what happens more in depth later. What does happen is pressures act in the form of impulses, which can be slow or fast. These pressures change the states of matter, which changes motions. These motions are of the total body, the deformation of the body, the molecular, and atomic motions of the body. When a body collides with another body it offers resistance against the impulse pressure of the incoming body, and the reverse is true for the oncoming body. There is increased motions in both colliding bodies, with much of each body going to contrary places. The atom's motions, activities, are increased in each body because of the pressure impacts from motions of matter impacting. Thus each body is changing, because of atoms, bouncing about differently than prior to collision. There is compression and expansion, due to the resiliency of the bodies. There is not__ any foo foo powder, or anything else being physically or magically exchanged. No exchange of measurement! No exchange of ability. Finally; there is no exchange of Energy! Each body will have a wane, and or gain in the ability to do work, energy, measurement__ but, it will be a new changed redirected ability, energy, that may be equal to what it had, and in another direction, or it might suffer a loss whereas the other body gets a gain. Both, bodies probably suffered a minute loss of ability since there was probably some heat loss. This heat loss can also be explained as pressure and motion.
If I press my finger into my arm... I am not electromagnetically injecting some entity called Energy into my arm. My body has the ability to do work. The work I am doing is bringing pressure to bear upon my arm. The Energy capacity to push my finger into my arm is being reduced by the work I am doing depressing resistant body tissue. Down at a lower level, I am probably causing molecules to move about more actively. And, further down I have caused electrons to move to different atomic levels. When my finger comes to a halt... the work stops... the small acceleration of body tissue stops... but the pressure can remain, but without a differential between bodies... a null is created.
Below are quotes as: "the complete destruction of 1 lb of mass would be accompanied by the release of 10.66 billion kilowatt hours of energy." "In the units used in pure physics, the destruction of 1 gram of mass is equivalent to the release of 9 x 10²° ergs of energy." Please note: "release... ...of energy!" Wow__ there sure would be one hell of a lot of measurements flying about! Actually from a nuclear fission atomic bomb explosion there is thermal radiation, nuclear radiation, and blast. All of which would have capacity to do work, energy__ but, actually it is potential__ until it does some work (it is released electromagnetic radiation, light). And, actually the release from this mentioned fission atomic bomb__ is the radiation and blast which has a measurable (or calculable) capacity to do work... energy. There is no entity of energy, released!
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E = mc²
Einstein's Formula!
Energy equals mass times light speed squared (c²)
In classical physics we measure the at rest mass of a body, and then we set it into motion and this develops abilities that can do work. This amount of work is nowhere close to the amount of ability to do work by this same body if it is exploded in a nuclear explosion. To make the the equation equal requires a value of the speed of light squared to the at rest mass value. Where did we get the extra ability to do the work that the nuclear explosion is capable of...?
Well; if we could take this same at rest mass body and accelerate it to the speed of light it again explodes with the same value as the pure nuclear explosion. Now try to imagine all the atoms and their sub-atomic particles that have been possibly orbiting electrons and vibrating at wave frequencies of this body. Instead of all these helter-skelter random motions... when at or very near the speed of light all these particles are going parallel in straight lines in one direction... they can't go backwards since we are pushing them, and they can't go forward or they exceed the speed of light. Now... all of the matter of the body is focused in one direction and is capable of bringing a much increased amount of pressure to bear in the forward direction. This amount of increased pressure is still probably not enough to match the ability to do work of the aforesaid explosions. So how do we get some more ability to do work?
If we go back look at what light does when it impact matter, we may have the answer. If our body of matter is of the black box type... when it is hit with photons of light of the infrared frequency (which is heat): science has said the matter absorbs the photons, and the electrons kicked up to higher energy levels of thermal activity... Likewise when a body is cooling its electrons drop down from higher to lower energy activity levels... at which time it kicks (pressures) photons as light heat out of the body. Where did the photons come from? I believe that there are photons within the space of atoms, that are idle, and sort of inert. An idle photon is mass-less or almost, and wouldn't bother anything, and would be basically undetectable, hiding within the atoms, awaiting a jump-start to get going again. Now, finally if these idle photons are part of the atom package, and go along when we accelerate the 1kg body of mass to light speed... these idle photons are no longer idle... they now are light again with forward directional mass pressure, and when all this is put together we have enough ability to do work on the mass side of the equation (mc²) of E = mc².
It is my belief that in a total conversion of a body of matter to a quantity of light photons in such as a complete nuclear explosion; it is a balance of forward directional mass of photons... equaling... the potential of forward direction mass of all the constituents in a body of matter quantity.
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It occurred to me that the basic corpuscles of Photons of light may... be... quarks. Quarks are thought to be the fundamental building blocks of matter. Neither quarks or photons can be seen individually. The total 'directional mass', resistance to change of state, of the outward radiated light photons from a nuclear reaction converting matter to light, may equal the total instantaneous 'directional mass' of all the quarks of a body of matter... as if all the multi directions of each quark's mass in a singular direction were totaled. Thus matter may not be destroyed in a nuclear reaction; but instead is reduced to natures smallest fundamental electromagnetic particles of light and matter, and thus focused... it is blasted outward...
A quark is thought to be mass-less if idle, and a photon is thought to be mass-less if idle. Photons have mass if activated as radiated light. If an idle quark were radiated... in a straight line at light speed, how could we tell the difference from light? If an idle light corpuscle is actuated into the spin of an electron, how would we know that it wasn't an idle mass-less particle of light?
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The explosion of an atomic bomb is one way that Matter is converted to Light. But, these explosions are not a perfect conversion of all the Matter involved, into Light. As mentioned prior; the explosive results radiated from a bomb of this type are Thermal Radiation, Nuclear Radiation, and Blast. Thermal Radiation is Light of the Infrared and Ultraviolet frequency ranges. Nuclear Radiation is Light of the Gamma Ray frequencies. It can also radiate Alpha, and Beta particles. An Alpha particle is a positive particle consisting of two protons, and two neutrons. (Which is identical to the Helium nucleus.) The Beta particle is either an electron or a positron. These particles are still in the form of Matter. Blast; is just everyday physical debris Matter, of and from the explosion.
Thus it might be that true full conversion of the two forms, light and matter, of electromagnetic phenomena__ is: Matter to Light__ and: Light to Matter. These conversions are only change of states__ changing of motions. This would be light, quarks, in free spatial directional mass motion__: or matter, quarks, in, and bound in a physical body as random multi directional mass motions.
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An ability cannot be transferred. It can be taught by one person to another; the other person learns, and gains the ability to measure the work__ while hence forth maybe the person that taught the ability, could have got whacked on the head and lost the ability. Loosely interpreted, when one entity interfaces with another causing a change of state in a second entity... the capacity to do work increases in this second body, while the capacity to do work in the first body decreases, or it can be a trade off of equal for equal but different, or partial and different. Example analogies being: One billiard ball hitting a idle ball, loses its ability, and is idle while the hit ball now has gains an equal ability. Or, two balls hit each other head on... they lose their respective abilities going forward, but regain equal abilities, but in reverse motion. And, lastly two balls hitting in various scenarios of glancing collisions... This is where the concept of Kinetic Energy came into being. §Kinetic: is an adjective word meaning: of or due to motion. But, describing energy as being in motion is a misnomer... energy, a measurement of capacity, work done, does not move, and is actually a new measurement after the activity of motion has occurred. While a work motion activity is in action... capacity to do work, increasing or decreasing, is constantly instantly continuously changing. Thus the differential of pressure, and acceleration. Saying the work, on, or of, something, is half done, is only a guess at the Potential energy capacity of either the work causing entity, or the entity being worked. §Potential energy of an entity is, as we know, something idly sitting around, that could do some work, but at the moment is not doing so. In actuality, even when matter is in action, doing work, that very same matter still has a tremendous amount of potential to do other work. In other words, all matter has potential to do work, even when it is working.
(Interesting enough, there is the thought, that: to transfer an ability, it is the transfer of organized thoughts from one person to another. This transfer would seem to require work. The work of thinking, speaking and etc, of the person transferring; and the work of gaining knowledge to do and have this ability. This will take a bit more consideration however, since the amount work expended to teach one person can be the same as the work to teach ten people! There seems to be an inequity herein this logic? Actually a listener is not required for the working actions of a teacher. All live brains are in a steady mode of working, in thought, conscious or unconscious... and it is just a matter of focusing our brain activity. Our brain is active continually as seeing, hearing, feeling, and body functional motions. When a teacher is speaking, he or she is not working with, or on another person directly... the teacher is doing work to cause air vibration, motions that can be seen, or creating math, and writing on a blackboard with chalk... The work of living and learning__ by sight, hearing, feeling, and functioning is a continuous function of life... This knowledge may be what was intentionally presented, or just facing the presentation of each new day...)
[If we go to extremes__ there is technically nothing that is exactly idle internally, or externally. Everything in and of the Universe is in constant motion, or change of state. There would be no entity of matter without some tiny bit, however so un-measurable, without mass. The Universe is always at work. If something was at a total zero motion... it would have achieved the end of the downward spiral of entropy. Having a condition as this is the same as having a fixed location in the Universe from which we can measure. It would mean that everything in the Universe has a fixed relativity from a single location. Or maybe there are 10, or 20, or billions of these fixed locations? We could measure from one to another for good fixed measurements, if only we could find, and recognize these entities. Thus... Entropy... is a Fantasy; is what I am thinking...]
So, again we ask how does the potential capacity for work, energy, of a body change? Well some entity, must make contact with another body such that the first body's motion of state acts upon the second body, or entity to change it state or condition. If a moving billiard ball impacts another idle billiard ball, the second ball moves... i.e. is set into motion. We say it was acted upon by a force. What kind of force? In this scenario it is the pressure of an impact, an impulse. The duration for work that was being done was very short. However during that time there was a slight amount of compression of each ball, (all matter is flexible). At the micro level electromagnetic fields were being pushed, causing molecular motion, atom motions, and atomic particle motions. These entities impacting other entities, always bringing pressure impactions to yet more atoms and etc. These motions and impacts of pressure have a mostly focused direction at first, away from the moving ball collision, but soon bouncing is in all directions with an activity more than when the ball was sitting idle. Thus the ball snaps back into its spherical shape, and rolls off with more ability to work, energy. Now the, once idle ball, has potential; it can do work by smacking into another ball for example. There was nothing transferred... there was only actions between. Micro, but...Classical Physics. This caused compression and expansion of the bodies. When something is compressed its micro internals start moving about more rapidly, and are closer to each other, resulting in more collisions in less time, to some extent, and the atoms and molecules are being squeezed into distortion. The body, all the while, is trying to push itself back into shape. When the body is settling back into shape and reducing its atomic activity...it kicks out photons of heat when the electrons drop to a lower activity level. When the ball cools to its former room temperature it is now a ball with at rest mass for the ball itself, and it has increased directional mass in the direction it is now moving. Wow, all this large paragraph to explain two small balls banging together. All this was done with motions and pressure of millions of impact collisions. It is also important to note: I suspect that there was probably no contact of any hard core solid particle of matter physically touching any other rigid solid body of matter. Moreover it was probably charged fields interacting in and around the micro space of atoms. Photons and atomic radiated particles may be the only particles of matter that touch other particles of matter. Two billiard balls hitting would seem to be just Newton's bodies of physical mechanics interacting... But it is much more... it is just one small piece of the total, of real nature of the Universe... always in action.
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Now for the fun part... Do we really need energy? Is it a necessity? Or, it a Fantasy?
Put it to the test. Can work be accomplished without measuring it for a value we call energy? Can the Universe get along without the measurement of energy. Did the Universe function okay prior to man conceiving the concept of measuring work being done? I suspect a whole lot of people have been getting along fine without really knowing what energy really is... ?
I presume you know my answer... especially since I put Energy in the non- reality section of this thesis.
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Page Relevant Quotes
§Energy: "Energy is the Ability to do work." College Chemistry, Arthur A. Noyes, G. Brooks King, & William E. Caldwell
§Energy: "Energy is defined as the capacity for doing work." "...it is always measured by work done." Encyclopedic Dictionary of Electronics & Nuclear Engineering, by Sarbacher.
§Energy: "Capacity of matter or radiation to do work." The Oxford Desk Dictionary...
§Energy: The capacity for doing work." Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary.
§Energy: "...energy is the capacity for doing work" The World of Elementary Particles, by Kenneth W. Ford
§Energy: "energy is the capacity to do work." Physical Science, Verne H. Booth & Mortimer L. Bloom
§Energy: "the ability to do work." "it has the capacity to do work." Fundamentals of Physical Science, Konrad Krauskopf & Arthur Beiser
§Energy: "A measure of a system to do work. Like work itself, it is measured in joules." A Concise Dictionary of Physics.
§Energy: "If an agent possesses the power of doing work we say that it possesses energy, and we measure the change of energy by the work being done." An Approach to Modern Physics, by E. N. da C. Andrade.
§Energy: "A body is said to possess energy because it can do work & the energy is measured by the work that can be obtained." A Survey of Physics; Saunders.
"From the point of view of the atomic theory, we can at once say that heat energy is nothing but the energy of motion (to which must be added in some cases the potential energy) of the molecules of which matter is composed. Let us consider a gas, for instance. It consists of molecules, more complex in some gases, less in others, but in all cases about a hundred-millionth of an inch across, with comparatively large spaces between, moving about in all directions with an average speed measured in hundreds of yards a second. The molecules collide with one another, and lose or gain in speed at collision, so that all velocities from very small to very great are represented. ...The hotter the gas the more lively is the motion of its molecules, or, more precisely put, the greater the average energy of the molecules. ...If the vessel be closed the more lively beating of the gas molecules against its sides produce the rise in pressure which we know takes place when a gas is heated in a sealed space. (RAD... Yes, yes, yes... motions!)
(RAD ...Remember Always... energy is a Measurement of work! The resulting value of the measurement can and does change. We do some mental gyrations when we count. 1, 2, 3, 4,... some value of numbers changes in our mind... but counting is counting... as measuring is measuring. Measuring... as counting, viewing, contemplating, expecting, and thinking are words describing actions, real and imaginary and are not physical things to be hauled, and stored in different forms in a warehouse...! )
Sadly, I must admit, for years, I am as guilty as most all people in my incorrect thinking and usage of the concept named Energy. It is true, if something is big, or is very hot, or is moving very fast, or all of these things... it likely, if measured, has a lot of ability to do work, if it is doing work; but this something, is never an entity phenomena of, or called energy.
