What Is Energy?
Whilst only grazing the surface of the chasm of Quantum Physics, this topic deals with Energy. First we need to understand what it is, then we can learn how to recognise it, and then we can learn how to harness it. From there, it’s up to you.
So what is Energy? Well, it’s everything, but let’s start at the beginning.
All and Nothing
Energy is essentially something that has the ability to affect or receive an effect, from something else. And that’s well, everything. All is created by the effect or consequence of Energy. Even nothing has an Energy…
The word Energy comes from ‘Energeia’ and was first used by Aristotle in his work called the ‘Nicomachean Ethics’. The word ‘Energeia’ can be translated to ‘In Work’ or ‘Doing’. He also introduced the opposite term ‘Hexis,’ which can be translated to ‘In the state of’ or ‘Possess.’
Energy represents itself in different Forms and States, of different Amounts and Mass, and with different measurements of Force and Velocity. It can be at rest or at work, and moves through Oscillations or Vibrations, or both, all of which determines a corresponding Sound and Light. It is measured in different Units according to its different components.
The Law – Conservation Of Energy
There seems a little confusion about who discovered this Law. The truth is that it took the combined efforts of a number of intellectual thinkers over a couple of thousand years to redefine it and out of simple respect, each deserves some credit.
From Thales of Mileyus around 620 BC, to Stevinus, Galileo, Huygens, Newton, Antoine Lavoisier, Julius Mayer and finally William Rankine, when The Law of The Conservation of Energy was officially recognised and accepted. So what did they actually discover?
Energy cannot be created and it cannot be destroyed. It can only be transmuted from one form of Energy into another.
This absolute is called The Law of Conservation of Energy and it was, and is, everything.
Think of it this way, Water cannot be made, or destroyed, only changed. For there to be more water, it has to come from somewhere, and so for there to be less water, it has to go somewhere. Likewise, with Energy, it is always the same amount as it was before, plus the amount of any Energy being added through its surface by another form of Energy, and simultaneously, minus the equivalent amount of Energy going out through its surface.
Form – Kinetic and Potential Energy
The Law of Conservation of Energy helps us to quantify and measure Energy, and in Physics, we make sense of Energy through calculations depending on the Type or Form of Energy. Physics categories the many different Forms of Energy as either Kinetic Energy which is associated with motion, or Potential Energy which is associated with position. Kinetic and Potential Energy are measured in Joules.
Kinetic Energy
Kinetic Energy can be transferred. It can be affected by its environment, by other objects or bodies around it. Those affects cause Vibrations and Oscillations which moves the Energy of one Form of Mass, to another.
See Article on Waves and Particles.
Potential Energy
Potential Energy cannot be transferred. It is the ‘stored’ Energy of any given thing, relative to its position, arrangement, and combination of its parts. It cannot transfer Energy to external things or bodies or systems.
The Science of Ball Games
However, Potential Energy can be transformed into Kinetic Energy.
Say What?!…
When you apply a Kinetic Energy by way of an external force to Potential Energy, it affects it, it causes a reaction in some way.
Imagine a stationary football on the ground. In this state it is Potential Energy. It is a Mass of Matter where its particular arrangement and sum parts is represented as a football.
Then think of a footballer exerting a Force on the football by way of a kick. The Energy of the Force applied is Kinetic Energy, a moving energy.
The Kinetic Energy of the Kick, transfers to the Potential Energy of the football, causing a reaction which here, is the football moving. When the football has rolled to a stop, the Energy is ‘at rest’. It has to go somewhere. So it transmutes back into Potential Energy and a ‘state of equilibrium’.
And that’s Kinetic and Potential Energy in a nutshell.
Energy Units – How Do We Measure Energy?
In Quantum Physics, Energy is understood as a Scalar Quantity, which means that it has a magnitude and no particular direction. As opposed to a Vector Quantity, which means that it has a magnitude and a specific direction.
In the football scenario, and to keep it simple, the Linear Energy Value can be calculated as
{1/2}mv2 equals KElin
Where
{m} = Kicker’s Mass
{v} = Kicker’s Velocity– i.e. running motion speed in a straight line
{s} = per second
However, because there are many forms of Kinetic and Potential Energy, we need a lot of different Units to measure it. There at least 24, from a Joule to an erg, to a Kelvin, to a Kilo, to an Atomic Mass Unit.
Torricelli, The Ocean Of Air, and Unseen Matters
In 1643, the Italian mathematician and philosopher Evangelista Torricelli demonstrated that Air has Mass, in a revival theory going back to Aristotle and beyond.
Tantamount to poetry, he explains his thought process and findings in a fascinating letter to Michelangelo Ricci, Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church at the time:
‘We live at the bottom of an Ocean of Air…’
He went on to make many other discoveries and is attributed with the invention of the Barometer, which might not sound too impressive initially until you look at the science behind it and the context of the resources he had to work with.
But the main concept for us to understand for our purposes, is that Torricelli had realized, confirmed, and demonstrated, that even things we cannot see or hear have Mass and Energy…
Indeed everything has an energy because everything is energy. Energy has a corresponding sound and vibration and that’s why even the things we cannot see or hear have an energy. This includes Thoughts and Words. When we have certain thoughts or say certain words, they are associated with an emotion and that emotion conveys their energy. We can feel the energy of thoughts and words, both our own, as well as other people’s. When we interpret words as kindness or as aggressiveness, as truth or lies, it’s because we are feeling the energy behind them. Most people can walk into a room and even if they haven’t heard a word, will know if an argument has just occurred, or even if no words have been spoken and there are just ill thoughts that have been projected; because they can feel the lingering energy. It’s where the saying ‘you could cut the atmosphere with a knife’ comes from. There are many more examples, both in negative and positive forms, of feeling energy.
Even numbers have a corresponding Energy. This is a highly significant topic all of its own too. Numbers and the combinations of them form the very basis upon which Matter itself is made.
We cover these concepts in much more detail in the blogs in other subject areas categories like ‘Divine Math’ and ‘Triple A’…
Let There Be Light!
The official Speed of Light is 299,792,458 km per second
Its mathematical symbol is c which is derived from the Latin ‘Celeritas’ and translates to something like ‘Swift Speed’.
During the early 20th Century Albert Einstein worked out his Special and General Theories of Relativity using this Math.
General Theory of Relativity
Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity’ states that ‘The amount of Mass is directly proportionate to its amount of Energy’ and is calculated using one of the most famous and well-known formulas in the history of science:
Where:
[m] = Mass of the body
[c] = Speed of Light
[E] = The amount of Energy in the body
Special Theory of Relativity
A simple way to explain Einstein’s Special Theory of Relativity is that all Particles and Waves travel at the Speed of Light, at least in a vacuum, and based on one of two other conditions like direction of travel. And which by its definition it means that the parameter of c is all pervasive, omnipresent, and so also includes other universal functions such as Forces, and which are not Light.
But What Does It All Mean Captain?
Well, this is powerful Math and its significance should not be overlooked. It needs to be appreciated if not also understood. What Einstein had figured out {amongst many other things}, was that Mass and Energy are connected, interchangeable…. that to change Mass, you change the Energy of it, and to change Energy, you change its Mass.
This, is super, super important.
So How can we interpret Energy? and How can we change it? Well first we need to get our head’s round the Atom.
Learn how to change an Atom and you can change your own Reality – for real.
So that’s where we head next with the article on ‘Waves, Particles, and The Atom – The Stuff Matter’.
The Black And White Cow 