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Re: Energy, etc



(I will get back to John Denker's thoughtful, challenging refutation
later. It will take thought on my part, more than I can muster, and
I'm quite busy just now.)

I want to ask Bill Beaty to consider the gravitational potential
energy in a massive system. As it happens, gravitational potential
energy is always negative. One can also ascribe an energy density
to the gravitational field (I'll take you through the derivation
if you wish) in just the same way that one can ascribe an energy
density to the electromagnetic field. The gravitational field
energy density is always negative. This term adds to the total
energy of any system in a straightforward way; it is not special.

How do you picture this negative energy density? Is it real to
you? It's not to me; that is my point. Where is it located? Is it,
perhaps, just a term in an algebraic sum which is found to be
necessary if the law of conservation of energy is to be valid?
I think so.

Leigh

"What is the analogy of this to the conservation of energy? The
most remarkable aspect that must be abstracted from this picture
is that *there are no blocks*."
- Richard Feynman, 4-1