jg FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES 



inorganic compounds, as water, have relatively small amouiits of chemical 

 energy, whereas organic compounds, as gasohne and other o.ls, coal 

 and w^od, usually have large amounts. When a compound is resolved 

 ink, its component atoms, the chemical energy reappears as kmetio 

 energy This is the source of the charges carried by the ions m an ,on zed 

 solution. Because ot their greater complexity, a greater arnount of 

 Hnetic energy can be produced in an animal body by the disintegration 

 of organic compounds than by that of inorganic compounds Th^ 

 kinetic energy may appear in various forms, as movement, hght, heat, 



"'" ^rtlw if Thermodynamics.— Thermodynamics is a part of physics 

 which deals with energy transformations. One law has long been con- 

 Idered fundamental in this Held : It is the law of the canservaUon of energy 

 which states that the sum total of energy iu this universe is the same at 

 Tu times, being neither created nor destroyed but simply changed from 

 one forn^ to another. Machines are mechanisms for transforming one 

 form of energy into another. When coal is burned in an engine, its 

 potential eneily is changed into the kinetic form ot heat and then changed 

 agaL into tlf kinetic form of mechanical energy. This may dnve a 

 dynamo and be transformed into electric energy, which in turn may be 

 transformed into the radiant energy of light. 



