ENERGETICS 101 



energies, represents the total potential energy of the weight 

 before it began to fall. 



So with the powder in a gun. The potential energy of 

 the powder cannot become actual without some stimulus, 

 some exciting force from without to set it free. It is the 

 external work of pressing the trigger that liberates the 

 potential energy of the powder, transforming it into the actual 

 energy of combustion, and the kinetic energy of the projectile. 



Since energy is work, and work is a function of motion, 

 there is in reality no such thing as energy in repose. Matter 

 according to our modern conception is a complex of molecules, 

 atoms, and electrons ; we conceive the molecules of matter 

 as always in movement, animated with cvclic or vibratory 

 motion, these oscillatory or rotatory movements representing 

 the potential energy of the body in question. Potential 

 energy is thus the expression of molecular motion without 

 translation of the molecules as a whole in space. 



When this potential energy is transformed into actual 

 energy by the intervention of some external force, we get a 

 current of energy, a transference of the molecules in space. 

 Thus, when an external force has released the weight, the 

 molecular orbits in the falling body change in form, and the 

 potential energy of the molecular motion becomes the kinetic 

 energy of the falling body. Similarly in the conduction of 

 heat, the energy of the hot body is transferred to a colder 

 body by transmission of the vibratory motion from molecule 

 to molecule. So again with chemical energy, the molecular 

 motion of combustion may be transformed into the radiant 

 energy of the ethereal waves. 



Actual energy may be regarded as a current of molecular 

 motion. To make the matter clearer, let a mass of matter 

 be represented by a regiment of soldiers. Then each soldier 

 will represent an electron, a company will be an atom, and a 

 battalion will be a molecule. As long as the soldiers mark 

 time, turn, or otherwise exercise without advancing, we have 

 simply an accumulation of potential energy. The word of 

 command, "March," is the exciting force which suddenly 

 transforms this potential into kinetic energy. The marching 



