Missouri Valley times. [volume] (Missouri Valley, Iowa) 1874-1931, 1901-10-24
MATTER AND FORCE.
ENERGY CANNOT De CREATED mon
CAN III BE DESTROYED.

IL Pnny Man Could Accomplish Eli
ther of These Impossible Things.
He Could Cause .'the Wreck Of Mat
ter and the Crash of Worlds"
If you could imagine an carthworm
trying to run the niagara Electric
Lighting and Power Transmission
works, you would have some faint idea
of the capacity of the greatest human
genius that ever lived to run the visible
universe. That is probably why the
wisest of us is not permitted to un-
derstand the final secrets Of nature.
Here Is a good example. Take IL rifle
into place sufficiently far from the
habitations of men; put the butt on the
ground and support it so that the bar
rel points straight up and pull the tris-
ger. The bullet will leave the musslc
with velocity of, say. 5000 feet seq
ond. 1t will rise to an enormous
height. come to a standstill for an in
finitcsimal fraction of second md be-
gin to fall back again. 1t wiz strike
the earth with very nearly but not
quite the same velocity as it left tho
muzzle of the gun. 1t would be exact
ly the same but for the resistance Of
the air.
What has happened is this: The ex-
plosion of the powder has changed q
solid into a gas. and the expansive en-
crgy of this has driven the bullet up-
ward. In other words, it has for the
time overcome that mysterious force
by which the earth draws everything
toward its own center.
But when the energy of the exploded
powder is exactly balanced by the pull
of gravitation the bullet falls back In
the first second after its turn it falls
16 feet, in the next %. i'll the next 81,
In the next 12S, and so on till it returns
with ever increasing velocity whence
1t started.
ed. The gases set free by the cNplo-
sion of the powder weigh exactly as
much as the solid. Some of the energy
has been used as heat some in propel-
ling the bullet. Gravitation. overcome
for awhile. has reassertcd itself. The
sum of matter and force in the uni
verse is absolutely unchanged.
This Is as true Of the quickened beat
Of girls heart when She meets her
lover as ii il of the march of the plan
!, cts and suns through the fields of SPACE.
Every atom of matter, every unit OF
force. throughout the universe is con
slant, external and exactly balanced
n MI .1,rl ctr. If
humanity could not increase or dimin-
ish them by the slightest fraction.
| Now, let us imagine what would hap
pen If man could make that bullet
strike the earth with greater or less
| force than 1t left the muzZle of the gun
He would either have increased or de.
creased tho total of universal energy
and in either case he would have
thrown first the solar system and then
the whole universe out of gear
The earth and all the other planets
would begin to revolvc in different or
4 bits. The sun, with its family of worlds
! would alter its path round the un
Then world would be hurled against
world and sun against sun, and stars
and planets would be reduced to the
flaming gases from which they cooled
into solids and liquids before time be
gan to be.
Just the same catastrophe would hap
pen IL man could either create or en-
tircly destroy n grain of sand on til.
scashore. The balance of the universe
in which swing stars and planets
A whose weight is ineNprcssib!e in human
figures (this tiny world of ours weigh.
!, G.O0O, 600 100000. OOO,OOO,OOO tons), is in
tinitcly more delicate than that which
the chemist has to keep in an airtigh
case and at an even temperature lest :
breath of air should throw it out O
gear.
Thus the destruction or creation of {
grain of sand would change the orbi
of the earth round the sun. In til,
one case it would be drawn closer ant
closer to the sun, perhaps after thou
sands of revolutions to be swallowed
UP in fiery ruin. In the other case i
would gradually leave the sun and yea
by year wander farther away into re
gions of space where human life would
be impossible.
The result of the dislocation of sucl
"a stupendous system, which has work
cd with unfailing eXactitudc for count
less ages, is. Of course, utterly beyond
the scope Of human Imagination, an,
yet such a seeming tritle as the creation
lOr destruction Of Il single grain of san,
might, and probably would, plunge i
into utter chaos and ruin.-Pearson's