Richmond daily palladium. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1876-1904, 1901-10-02
NATTER AND FORCE.
ENERGY CANNOT Sc CREATED MOB
CAN 1T BE DESTROYED.
IL Puny Man Could Accomplish FL
Their OF These Impossible fhinsss-
He Could Cause ..the wreck OF hnt-
ter and the Crash OF Worlds

ter and the Crash OF Worlds
If you could imagine an earthworm
trying 10 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 UNI
derstand the final secrets of nature.
Here is a good example Take rife
into a place sufficiently far from the
habitations of men; put the butt on the
ground and support Ii SO that the bar
rel points straight up and pull the fris-
ger. The bullet Will leave the muzzie
with velocity of. say. 5000 feet sec
ond Ii will rise TO an enormous
height. come TO a standsrill Tor an III
finitesimal fraction of a second and be-
gin to fall back again. Ii Will STRIKE
the earth with very nearly but not
quite the same velocity as IL left the
muzzle of the gun. II would be exact
IN the same but for the resistance OF
the air.
What has happened is this: The ex-
plosion of the powder has changed
solid into gas. and the expansive en-
ergy of this has driven the bullet up
ward In other words. IL 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
- in RI in h.a
in the next lbs. and SO on till il returns
with ever increasing velocity whence
ii started.
Nothing has been lost, nothing gain
| ed The gases set free by the eXplo-
| 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 reasserted itself The
SUN OF matter and force in the uni
verse is absolutely unchanged.
This is as true of the quickened beat
| of a girls heart when she meets her
lover as it is 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.
| and the whole strength and genius OF
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 it left the muzzle of the gun
He would either have increased or de-
! creased the 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 revolye in different or
bits. The sun. with its family of worlds,
would alter it's path round the I'M
| known center about which ii revolves.
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 II man could either create or en-
| tirely destroy a grain Of sand on the
seashore. The balance of the universe,
in which swing stars and planets,
whose weight is inexpressible in human
figures 0his tiny world of ours weighs
5000, 600, 900 600 OOO. 900 600 tons). is In.
| finitely more delicate than that which
the chemist has TO keep in an alright
| case and at an even temperature lest a
breath of air should throw it out of
gear.
Thus the destruction or creatiV of a
grain of sand would change the orbit
of the earth round the sun. In the
one case it would be drawn closer and
closer TO the sun. perhaps after thou
! sands of revolutions to be swallowed
up in fiery ruin. n the other case ii
| would gradually leave the sun and year
| by year wander farther away into re-
| gions of space where human life would
! be impossible.
/ The result of the dislocation OF such
/ a stupendous system. which has work
f! ed with unfailing exactitude for count
| less ages. is. of course. utterly beyond
the scope of human imagination, and
yet such a seeming trifie as the creation
( or destruction of a single grain OF sand
might, and probably would, plunge II
into utter chaos and ruin.-Pearson's.
His Ability.