Ether (Space); Force and energy; Gravitation; Matter
In the case of currents of water, whether they are in the form of river
currents or ocean currents, as has already been pointed out in the
previous article, the question of potential energy, or energy of
position, is associated with their kinetic energy. Water is taken at a
certain elevation, and then allowed to fall to a lower level, and in its
fall from the high level to the lower level, its kinetic energy is used
to drive mill-wheels, and thus work is done, the kinetic energy of the
water being transformed into the motion of the machinery. This machinery
may be used to work a dynamo, and thus electric light may be generated,
or it may drive an electric motor which may perform all sorts of
mechanical work. The great underlying principle of either kinetic or
potential energy rests in the fact, that wherever we have energy of any
kind or sort, whether it be associated with water, wind, or Aether,
there we have the capacity to do work, the amount of work depending upon
the amount of energy that exists in the matter which is the vehicle of
energy.
In Art. 50 it has been indicated that the Aether possesses several kinds
of motions. From the sphere of light and heat, we learn that the Aether
possesses certain motions which are always exerted in a direction from
the central body, which gives rise to the light- and heat-waves. That
being so, it conclusively follows that the Aether possesses kinetic
energy, and therefore, possessing this energy, it also possesses the
power to do work. It must be remembered we are no longer dealing with a
frictionless medium, but with a gravitating medium, possessing mass and
inertia, and, that being so, wherever we have the Aether in motion,
there we have kinetic energy or the power to do work; and that work will
correspond to the particular kind of motion which is exerted on any body
by the aetherial motions, and will be equally subject to Newton's Laws
of Motion.
ART. 56. _Energy and Motion._--An advance, however, as to the meaning of
the term Energy has been made within recent years, which brings it more
into harmony with that simplicity of conception, and accordance with
experience which are the very foundation of all philosophy. Instead of
the term Energy, there is now being used another term to denote the
forces which form the life of the universe, and that term is the word
"Motion."
Professor Poynting says: "All energy is energy of motion" (_British
Association Report_, 1899).
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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