Physics Journey To Life: Day 15 - Conservation of Energy

You are welcome to check out my previous blogs within the series “What is Energy”

In my previous blog I started investigating Energy. The first point that unexpectedly came up was that science doesn't really know what energy is, though what is known, or at least, believed to be known, is that "there is a certain quantity, which we call energy, that does not change in manifold changes which nature undergoes." (*The Feynman Lectures on Physics, Vol 1, Ch 4) this is referred to as the law of conservation of energy - this law simplistically states that "there is a numerical quantity which does not change when something happens. It is not a description of a mechanism, or anything concrete; it is just a strange fact that we can calculate some number and when we finish watching nature go through her tricks and calculate the number again, it is the same". (*The Feynman Lectures on Physics, Vol 1, Ch 4).

In other words, science has defined energy as a specific mathematical quantity that has specific dimensions / units, not knowing what energy is, not ever seeing it directly, but knowing that this quantity is constant - it doesn't change, no matter what happens. The law of conservation of energy states that energy may neither be created nor destroyed., therefore the sum of all the energies in the system is a constant.

Though considered a mystery, energy has been defined as the ability to do work, and thus, has the same units / dimensions as work - mechanical work is directly related to force, as it is defined as force that results in movement / displacements / change of the body it is working on, when force is omitted upon a body and results in movement / displacement / change of the body, the force is said to have done work. Thus, the units for work are the units for force (F) multiplied by the units of displacement (x) - as we know the units for force can be derived from the known equation F=ma, as Newton's second law of motion, and thus units of force will be the units of mass (kg) times the units of acceleration (m/s^2), thus the units for force are called Newtons .

Where work is defined as force that results in movement and thus is dimensionally equivalent newton-meter (N·m), though the SI unit of work is the joule (J), which is defined as the work done by a force of one newton acting over a distance of one meter. And thus, the units for energy, in SI units, are also joule (J).

As we already know, there are many forms of energy, thus, within conservation of energy, the quantity of energy can and will change it's form, and by calculating the sum of all the different forms of energies, within a closed system, at the beginning of an experiment, and then, at the end of the experiment, we will always find that it is equal, we will see that the sum of all forms of energy found within the closed system, will always remain constant. Where a closed system refers to a system that energy cannot flow in or out, and that all energies are accounted for and can be calculated.

I've been reading the Feynman Lectures on Physics - this book is based on the lectures given by Richard Feynman, let me share with you his way of explaining conservation of energy and the fact that energy in itself is unknown.

Imagine a child that has 28 play blocks, but these block are special because they are absolutely indestructible, and cannot be divided in to pieces - the child is playing in his room with his blocks, and at the end of each day, his mother comes in and counts how many blocks he has - she discovered an interesting phenomenal law - no matter what he does with his blocks through out the day, at the end of the day there are always 28 blocks.

This goes on for a while, until one day the mother, to her surprise, counts only 26 block - at first she panics as mothers tend to do, and then she investigates further and finds the missing blocks under the carpet.

Another day she comes in and counts only 25 blocks - she looks into it and realizes that the window of the room was open, and 3 blocks have fallen outside of the room, she then collects the fallen blocks and shuts the window. Some more days go by and as she goes by her daily routine she finds 30 block - how could this be?

She investigates and finds out that her son's friend cam over and forgot 3 of his blocks - she gets rid of the friend's forgotten blocks, and forbids of any friends with blocks to come over (this mother has become obsessed with these blocks, lol...). A few more days go by and as the mother counts the blocks she finds only 23 - the child then tells her that he had placed 5 blocks in his very privet box, in his room, and she mustn't open the box - though the obsessed mother has to find a way to count all blocks and make sure they are all accounted for, so one day, when there are 28 blocs visible and present, she takes note of the weight the box as well as an individual block, then the next day when blocks are missing she weighs the box and calculates how many blocks are in the box, through subtracting the current weights of the box with the original weight of the box, and dividing with the weight of one individual block - then she will add the amount of blocks that are hidden in the box, with the amount of blocks that are visibly seen, and will once again have the same constant number as before, 28.

This story goes on and one, where each time some blocks are missing, the mother finds a way to formulate the amount of the missing block - some blocks are in the bath, so she measures how high the water level is when the bath is empty and she measure how much the water rises as she places one block in the water, and formulates another term to her formula - the sum of the seen block, and all calculations of the missing blocks in all the different "hiding" places, always comes up to 28, always the same constant - each times she "loses" some blocks, she figures out another term to add to her equation and the result is time and time again constant. At a certain point she sees no more blocks because all are stored and hidden in different places and thus, she can only calculate how many blocks are in the room by measuring the slight displacements in the room that she had taken note of, and using her formulas to calculate how many blocks are in each place - at the end of the story we assume she had seen all the hidden places the blocks could be in.

So what do we have here, and how does this analogy reflect the conservation of energy? We have a mother, obsessed with her child's blocks, similar to how we as humanity are obsessed with energy, but this is not actually the point of this specific analogy, though I will address this at a later blog. At this stage she had not seen any block in a while, she knows they are there but cannot see them any more, she can only calculate how many blocks are in the room through the mathematical equations she had formulated, expressing the quantity of the blocks in each hidden location, where the sum of all formulas she came up with, is always constant - this story is an analogy to us not ever seeing the energy per say, but are only able to calculate it through the formulas given to each form of energy, where the sum of all energies will always be constant. Another point we must remember to consider, is whether the energy can enter or leave our defined system, where if that is the case - the law of conservation of energy will not hold, thus, in order to be able to apply the law of conservation of energy we must make sure this doesn't happen, that we are discussing a closed system, or define our system in such a way that it will include all energies.

In reality though, we know we lose lots of energy, there is a lot of discussion of how to "save energy", thinking of ways to preserve and conserve energy - so how does this coincide with the apparent conservation of energy? First of all, we mustn't forget that when speaking of conservation of energy it is referred to a "closed system" where energy cannot leave the system, where in reality we exist in one big closed system as the universe, though the localized systems are not closed, and thus there is a leakage of energy from within the system externally, mostly through thermal and radiation energy. We must remember that the physics model is a theoretical and ideal model whereas in life we don't have such ideal systems. Another point I found interesting is that the initial definition of energy is related to work, and thus, to the ability of the object / system to provide a desired change - when we refer to losing energy, we are actually referring to the loss of energy that can be used by us, humans, to be utilized to power our homes / industries / equipment - any process that involves energy does still stand within the law of conservation of energy per say, but the energy transforms to forms that cannot be "captured" by us, and thus we consider it as a loss.

I find it interesting that science gives so much "credit" to energy, and have defined it as a quantity that cannot be created nor destroyed, even though we know energy is "created" from substance, where physical substance is the chamber of all the chemical reactions, the nuclear partials, the movement to create friction and collisions, it's the physical substance that is involved in all interactions for us to have discovered and defined gravitational or electrical forces - it seems as if the research has been focusing on energy, and when discussing the physical and investigating it's elementary particles, it's does through the lens of energy, as energy, even though a mystery, and perhaps because of it's abstract formation, has become the essence, the goal, the source, everything, and the physical is seen as arbitrary - it's interesting because it's all in reverse, just as human behavior, where we consider energy to be greater than substance, we will trust our energetic experience as feelings and emotions more than the physical evidence that is right there plainly visible in front of us, we will interpret and assume within the illusions of our minds, instead of looking at reality directly as what is here, shown to us clearly and visibly as the physical.

We must always remember that all that we know about nature / science / reality is through our interpretation and within it our belief system, as the accepted paradigm we exist within - I find it interesting that there is a law of conservation of energy and not a law of conservation of physical substance, this reminds me of the point I made when I discussed the third law of motion, where science had made a decision to enhance one part of the equation and not the other even though they are equal within an equation - if we can equate substance to energy as the famous E=mc^2 we can very well equate energy to substance, as m=E/c^2 - this can always be a point of questioning, we can see the mentality of science within how formulas are expressed - as the energy is constructed by the other characters playing as stands in the play of energy, as energy is the main character. It's just an interesting point to investigate and question and consider what is the mentality, the mind's patterning behind it.

We know that energy can be created from / through substance, but can substance be created through / by energy? Science has given energy the highest regard, but it is actually an inferior expression to that of the physical as it is created by it and stored in it, but cannot "give back" the same regard to the physical - to create energy one must consume the physical substance in an irreversible way, irreversible from the perspective that we, as the human, cannot replenish that which we have destroyed in our thirst for energy, and even though the physical / nature itself can and does recreate itself within the circle and flow of life, it does it in a long and slow process, mush slower than the rate we consume it with our obsession to energy - it is much faster and easier to consume it than it is for the physical to reconstruct itself.

This blunt disregard for the physical within the scientific equations and understandings is a point where science failed to take responsibility, and has created an illusion for humanity to exist in, where we see energy as the goal to achieve, not considering the substance it consumes and destroys, and we do this effortlessly while the physical takes very long to recreate itself - it's fascinating, it's a point of consumerism, it's the same structure as consumerism, I find it fascinating to find the same construct playing out in such different arenas of life . A responsible science would not through such ideas without backing them up with presenting the consequences.

Have we even considered whether energy can recreate itself as substance dose? We have allowed ourselves to remain blind to the simple fact that energy is dependent on substance - we have connected /defined / seen energy as the source of life, but haven't considered that energy is created through the consumption and destruction of the physical, the very physical which allows this conversation, this sharing of ideas, to even take place - if we would have looked at the point, we would have most probably come to the conclusion that any type of energy cannot be a form of "life source" but rather the contrary, as a form of life consumer.
More on energy to come.

Recommendation for further self study:

Tile_the-secret-history-of-the-universe-is-energy-life-part-6

For very basics, and investigate the creation of it all, before substance and energy were manifested, and how they came about, how awareness as the initial creator, had brought us to the point where we are at, in the physical, enslaved to the separation within/as energy - you must invest in this series "The Secret History of the Universe"

Tile_kryon-my-existential-history-part-1

To educate yourself on the energy of the mind as consciousness, "Kryon - My Existential History" explains how energy was used to program the mind

If you want to learn more about the topic of energy, here is a really well done lecture on "Work, Energy, and Universal Gravitation" given by Prof. Walter Lewin. You can find there all his lectures for the entire physics course.

and the book “The Feynman Lectures on Physics” is fascinating, where Richard Feynmen goes through the basic course of physics, and he dies so in such a unique and interesting way, his book is valuable for anyone that really wants to learn about physics in a profound way.