THE PKINCIPLES OF ENERGY 49 



Releasing Transformations. 



A word about this matter. The grandfather's clock, with its 

 weights wound up, is at rest, but a very small expenditure of 

 muscular effort will cause the pendulum to make a swing, and 

 then the mechanism starts. The mixture of hydrogen and 

 oxygen is also at rest, and nothing happens until a very small 

 spark (involving a very small expenditure of heat) causes several 

 molecules of H^ and Oo to combine, thus liberating heat, which 

 starts off other molecules, and so on, until the whole mixture 

 fires in a very small period of time. A stone poised on the 

 summit of a hill remains there until a very small push liberates 

 it, and it starts to roll down, acquiring a high velocity, and 

 becoming capable of doing much mechanical work. The coiled 

 spring of a gramophone remains coiled until the touch of a little 

 lever allows it to uncoil and actuate the mechanism. These are 

 examples of releasing transformations. A relatively large 

 quantity of energy is potential, and because of some condition of 



, " false equilibrium," due to friction of some kind, it remains 

 potential; but a relatively small expenditure of kinetic energy 



• suitably applied upsets the equilibrium or overcomes the friction, 

 and releases the energy which was potential. Such releasing 

 transformations are of much importance in the discussion of 

 organic activity. 



The Principle o! Becoming. 



Taking a general survey of the results discussed so far, we may 

 ask the question. Why does anything at all happen ? The 

 enquiry is not so foolish a one as it may appear to a " prac- 

 tically-minded " person, for a little consideration will convince 

 such that if anything happens — if there is " becoming " — there 

 must be an energy transformation. This is true, whether the 

 event that happens is something very great and important from 

 our point of view — for instances, the formation of a huge sun- 

 spot with accompanying magnetic storms, a cyclonic disturbance 

 which wrecks a number of vessels, or a stellar collision — and it 

 would also be true of quite trivial things, such as the con- 

 densation of a man's breath on the surface of a shaving mirror. 

 Therefore our question becomes this, Why does an energy 

 transformation occur ? And as such it is a legitimate subject 

 for enquiry. 



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