Chronology Current Month Current Thread Current Date
[Year List] [Month List (current year)] [Date Index] [Thread Index] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Date Prev] [Date Next]

re:Flow of energy



I guess this question was directed to me. Sorry I didn't answer it before.

This is both right and wrong. Do SOME types of energy propagate across
distance? If so, then we cannot say that energy in general does not flow.
Is "flow" a bad description of the behavior of OTHER types of energy? If
so, then we cannot say that energy in general flows.

You can paint a rocket green and send it to the Moon. Can you now say
that green flows? The paint may be said to flow; its color does not
flow, even though somehow green has been transported over distance -
there is now more green on the Moon than there was before the rocket
arrived. (I discount reports that the Moon is made of green cheese.)

Energy may be an attribute of something that propagates, but there is no
such thing as pure energy. It seems to be a hard sell, but that's what
Richard Feynman means when he says there are no blocks. Until that simple
concept is mastered it is difficult to approach other abstract concepts,
notably entropy, which is on exactly the same conceptual footing. Entropy
is easily conceived once energy has been conceived properly.

Leigh