Energy?

Welcome back! It has been quite a long time since I wrote something and to be frank, I was and am still running short of time.

However, this one is something that I wanted to talk about for a long long time. Let’s talk about ENERGY with some ENERGY.

I should confess, I am no great Physicist. I am just curious about the subject. These posts are logs, interactive ones, where I share with the world what I currently understand.

There might be debates, (in the so promised comments section), people might talk, quarrel and sometimes come up to conclusions, help each other and stuff (and that’s why I just want the comments section to come up, and I am still working on it sometimes, but quite rarely to be frank.)

As an intro to this post, don’t freak out due to so many blockquotes like this one, but I need this to say that this post is not gonna touch a lot of Mathematics, but I promise to do it in the near future.

Another disclaimer, many of the talks might be skeptical, very nooby and stuff but that is to make sure the essence of Energy is conveyed.

The internet is quite a good resource for whatever you want. I obtain a lot of information, be it about any topic, from there. Some sources can contain ‘old’ information, but the essence of it is to cross-check it with multiple areas until you are satisfied.

Why’d I talk about that, suddenly? It seems that there are two ways to make things/topics/talks absurd. Either, don’t understand what you are gonna talk about but still talk about it, or the thing that you are gonna talk about is already absurd.

For ENERGY, the latter case holds true. I mean seriously, it is absurd. Something that we are all familiar with, be it in different manners but we can’t explain what it really is.

Now, let me ask you this question, What is 1? You would probably think that I have gone mad. What can I guy explain about ENERGY, who himself doesn’t know about a number, 1

And that’s it, Energy is just a number! Alright, have a nice day! See ya!

Yeah, that was not so funny. Anyways, what I said is true indeed. It is a number given to visualize and assign the cause of different properties shown by a thing.

In other, more common words, it is the capacity to do work. What’s work!?

So, I am working on my computer (for some programming stuff and whatever, that’s not pertinent/relevant). So I used up my energy. Yippee!

That’s not how it works or is supposed to. You (your mechanisms inside you) do indeed work and hence use up Energy but that doesn’t mean that you do physical work because of sitting in front of a computer, in a car, or whatever. (I mean yeah, your brain and stuff require energy so that you could sit down in front of a computer but I count that as internal and intrinsic, something required anyway)

What work signifies is the effect of a Force, a force signifies interaction. So, work signifies the effect of interaction? Yup, that’s true.

The concept of Energy is one heck of a deal. It is the most talked about thingy, in any situation, it is Energy which is playing the role, whatever form be it. But we still don’t seem to understand how to explain what we use the most.

Anyways, let’s stop me from going into philosophical science talks…

We were with work, which we defined as the effect of interaction. So, energy is the capability to affect something via interactions.

I read everything till now, maybe at least 5 times. But something didn’t seem right. It didn’t give me the sense of it, it didn’t make me aware and so, it wouldn’t to you as well. We need something better, something we come up with from scratch.

Coming to it from Scratch

This is gonna be a very hard one for me. And for you probably… Coming up to the current state of energy is gonna be a hard one. I would have to have multiple posts about different forms of energy but let’s just go briefly over it in this one, and by go over, I mean a proper one.

And trust me, be in this with me. The feeling of getting what it means (to a certain level, kinda) is just, it is just, out of bounds for me to explain.

Our question is what enables stuff to happen. What lets it do what it does. What drives it. What facilitates it?

Let’s start with ourselves. I am a guy. I eat food. I write a blog. I study. I talk. I do stuff ~ That stuff can be anything.

Questions arise as to what facilitates that kinda stuff to happen (except for well, me being a guy, which in a sense is due to the outcome of Energy but well it is just not one direct form and blah..)

Hence, the first Question:

Why do we eat?

We eat. Because we want to? What happens if we don’t eat? We die? But why? This just leads to a bunch of questions with no answers (particularly because I can’t or I don’t want to use the word ENERGY at all in this part of the post.)

So let’s do one thing. Let’s say there was this thing \(E_p\) that was required by us.

So, we eat because we need \(E_p\) to survive, otherwise, we would have died. That explains it with no answer as to what \(E_p\) might be.

We just get a hint that \(E_p\) is something necessary.

Is \(E_p\) something required by us, humans only?

That is a very very very very very very very very good question. As far as our experience, we see other animals eating as well so we might say that \(E_p\) is required by everything not only humans.

But coming to that conclusion from just one example will be wrong. What about plants? These are living things as well, right?

I know, we kinda get that because we see plants making and utilizing energy and if I actually step into that deep hole the other question would be, What are living things?

Then it would escalate to,

What about viruses and stuff? How do we define them?

All of which then goes into a lot of Biology, which if you are an old reader (even though this blog is a new one, relative to the number of posts that I have) know that it is my favourite subject (That’s an irony obviously).

So let’s keep things simple and answer the one about plants in an intuitive manner.

We know we need this \(E_p\), right? And it comes to us as food. We also know that we eat plants. So that very well says that plants do have this \(E_p\) thingy.

We don’t know whether plants need it or not, but we do know that they have it.

What about things like chairs, computers, devices, rocks or anything similar?

They do have it. Most of these have their basic (naive/nooby)-human-observable building blocks as substances derived from plants. Wood is one example. Furniture is made of wood.

There are other things indeed that aren’t plant derivatives. What about those?

That deserves an answer. Probably through something we humans have been doing all the time-

Diving deep into the structure. The structure of stuff

Alright, at this point of time, I would assume that you have at least a basic sense of atomic and molecular structures and stuff, because it is gonna be hard for me to ever finish this post because what I am talking about is something that is still not finished having discussions about and probably that will never finish as well.

You just need a basic understanding, nothing too deep into gluons, quarks, Quantum Models or stuff, just what atoms might be. That assumption will help me to continue with some leftover \(E_p\) 😁

Plants are essentially biological organisms made of atoms of Carbon which is an element. Not only Carbon but other elements like Nitrogen, Oxygen, Hydrogen (there is another thing I would like to say related to this, but a bit later. So what we might say is it is through these atoms that our \(E_p\)finds existence somehow.

As almost everything is constituted of atoms, \(E_p\) exists in them.

In a way, we journeyed through the process of the Discovery of the “so-called” basic unit of matter, the atom. There is a problem to this in some situations and I am gonna talk about those a bit later.

You should make sure that you understand everything I talked about until now. One thing that should be ensured is that you understand that this \(E_p\) we talk about, is a property. It isn’t a physical thing.

Well, how? Recall that we concluded that plants have this thingy with them. We eat plants, we have it with ourselves.

We didn’t conclude anywhere that it was present inside anything. You can go ahead and disprove that, by providing physical evidence for our \(E_p\)’s existence as a physical entity, you wouldn’t be able to.

Summing all of that, we can say:
- Atoms probably have this property we name \(E_p\).
- We need more and more \(E_p\) to survive as we grow. (More on that later)
- Plants also have this \(E_p\). We don’t know (yet) whether they need it or not.

Do Plants need \(E_p\)?

Another question we might be able to answer now. Let’s do an experiment. We know that atoms have this property that facilitates the existence of \(E_p\), why not check whether a plant needs atoms/elements to survive?

Turns out it does. It needs Minerals, that can be provided to it from Water.

The thing about worry is that it also needs other stuff. Sunlight is an example and it is basically light. If it doesn’t get it, it dies. So, in a manner, sunlight and hence light, is having \(E_p\) as well. How, in what manner, that’s another talk.

If we already have the property of \(E_p\), why do we need more of it? Essentially, why do we need to survive if we have the basic elements of survival already?

The question might not be clear to some. So let’s frame it in another manner.

Why do we need more of food, hence \(E_p\) if we already get it once we eat? Why not eat once and be done with it?

This question hints to the utilization of \(E_p\). We use \(E_p\) for whatever we do, hence it gets utilized. Hence we need more of it. (Essentially meaning that the property of \(E_p\) staying with us starts to fade away, the rate might be slow)

However, the question then arises, what happens to the used up \(E_p\)? Does it get destroyed? That leads to the answer for the next question and what we will ultimately call

The Conservation of \(E_p\)

What happens to the \(E_p\) that we possess when we die? Where does the property go?

This one is the best and the hardest one to answer. The reason being that this question can be asked in multiple forms, each meaning something different. But the ultimate answer boils down to this.

See, we humans are complex and explaining with humans is gonna be hard. I am gonna go into our old example buddies, the plants and then build up from there.

As you know, when a plant dies, it decomposes. This property of organic decomposition helps us to create composts (which serve as fuel, something we are going to talk about a bit later).

Be it anything organic, it ultimately decomposes. But what? What decomposes? The thing is that the complex structure of the plant or anything organic for the matter decomposes into simple structures of combinations of atoms.

The constituents stay back, and hence there is no reason for \(E_p\) to suddenly not be a property of those constituents and just vanish away.

Thus, \(E_p\) remains.

The other part of this answer comes from the question that arose in the previous answer. What happens when we or anything for that matter uses \(E_p\)?

As we concluded, as the constituents remain, there is no particular reason for \(E_p\) to vanish away. Hmm, then what happens?

Let’s consider some possible answers:

\(E_p\) gets taken away from us by God and that’s it.

Let’s understand why this might not be an answer to this at all. To be frank, I don’t have an answer to this. We don’t understand God, we don’t know how, where, why he exists. And this choice only works out when we see phenomena which we cannot explain in any manner. Probably better to rule this out and come back to this if we don’t find a solution.

\(E_p\) gets exhanged somehow.

This one looks promising. However, what is that somehow? and what does it get exchanged with? With whom does it get exchanged?

Let’s consider a situation where we utilize \(E_p\) and see whether we can find a solution to this or not.

To those who are already aware of the mathematical backgrounds, read this one and see how those terms come out to use and make sense:

Let’s say you were using a hammer to put some nails into place. We use some of our \(E_p\) associated with us to drive the hammer down with some force on the nail. We lose some of that \(E_p\) we have, let’s call that lost quantity \(e_p\). We don’t know where that \(e_p\) went. But what we do know is that nails went into place.

What changed in the whole of the situation was that we lost \(e_p\) and the nail got in. Nothing changed in the whole system except for those. So what we might say is that \(e_p\) went into the nails or something. Let’s reason this. When we put in the nails into place, we might have destroyed the interaction of some atoms at that place. Hence, we might have used \(e_p\) to destroyed those interactions. Now, as the word interactions is a big one, let’s call it a bond (sounds small, interesting and familiar).

All in all, we did some work to put the nails. We haven’t still answered what happened to that \(e_p\). The proposal for this choice was that it got exchanged somehow, remember?

Let’s just say that it got exchanged with the current state of the nail. How? We don’t yet know and we will try to reason it next.

The words in italics are the most common words you would here studying the structure of atoms, physics, and science in general. People aren’t mad. There is a reason for everything we name. Science isn’t equations but equations provide us an insight into what Science tries to reasons.

It got converted.

This isn’t really an option but an answer to the question we came up just now. How it gets converted is something we are gonna talk about in just a second but before that, confusion might arise in many people’s minds:

Why and how the heck did it get converted? \(E_p\) is just a property, how did a property change itself?

It doesn’t matter if you didn’t come up with this question, just remember to be curious and keep on thinking, now let’s get to the answer to this pretty question…

Hmm. That’s right. How do we convert a property? Also, how do we exchange a property?

The thing is, we didn’t convert the property, neither did we exchange it. We converted the form in which it found existence, the atoms. Now, we didn’t convert the atoms as well but we exchanged it with another form of atoms. The structure formed when we just put the nail inside was different than the composition our atoms had. Hence, the form got changed. The \(e_p\) was given or associated to that form now.

All of that does provide an explanation, but the thing is an exchange refers to a two-way thingy. However, we find that this thingy wasn’t two-way. We lost something that another thing gained. Hence, our assumption that there is an exchange is wrong. The only thing happening is that the form to which \(e_p\) was associated to, changed, it got converted.

Why did I bring up the option of exchange at all then? The reason was to come up to the conversion part and prove that it wasn’t an exchange but just a conversion playing a role. This also says that we might be wrong when we come up with something, we just need to think about it.

We just came up with something you wouldn’t have realized:

Conservation of \(E_p\) : \(E_p\) can never be destroyed. The form it is associated to can be changed, however.

Do remember that it is our experience that led us here. We haven’t experienced anything yet and that’s why the above holds true. The above, in the real world, is known as the Law of Conservation of Energy and here is what it states:

Law of Conservation of Energy : Energy can never be destroyed. It can only be changed from one form to another.

Find any similarity? Something that I cannot resist talking about is that all we have done is explain what we experience. We just sought for an explanation. Nobody except experience can tell us whether we are correct or not. We look for principles, laws that could define what we experience. All of Physics is just an explanation. Nothing else.

So, what is \(E_p\) really then? Remember that we used some of it while working with the nails. We called that \(e_p\). We didn’t utilize all of \(E_p\). And we can’t utilize something more than the \(E_p\) associated with us. That just says that \(E_p\) is an upper bound, an upper limit for something.

\(E_p\) is really a limit which defines the total \(e_p\) that can be used to work.

We, humans, have decided to name this \(e_p\) Work (A physical quantity). What Work says is the amount of stuff done (that stuff can be anything). While working we change interactions (what we call and refer as Force) (interactions with a field or whatever). We change the way how something interacts, its form. \(E_p\) and hence Energy associated with a thingy tells us how much of work can be done by that thingy. That’s it.

Notice how \(e_p\) (work) is just a part of \(E_p\)(Energy). In the real world, and some mathematics, you would find work and Energy associated with a body to have the same units. That’s because they are essentially the same. Work is just a part of the Energy that is used up.

Do remember that Energy and Work are properties. They are nothing if you don’t know who or what they are associated with. That’s why I put emphasis on making sure that I include the phrase associated to a lot.

As a conclusion, Energy is the amount of stuff that can be done. But Work is what is what is actually done.

This isn’t the only talk where I am gonna talk about Energy and this isn’t the only resource to understand everything about energy. This is the Essence of Energy (Part 1?). I haven’t talked about the various forms of Energy, Relative Energy, and all that stuff which might be coming in the future…

See ya!

What's ENERGY?!?

May 12, 2019