Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1901-12-25
MATTER AND FORCE.
ENERGY CANNOT BE CREATED NOR
CAN 1T BE DESTROYED.

II rany MIN Could Accomplish Ell
Their of These Impossible Things,
He Could Cause "the Wreck of Mat
ter and the Crash of Worlds"
If you could imagine an earthworm
trying to run the Niagara Electric
Lighting and Power Transmission
works, you would have some faint idea
genius that ever lived to run the visible
universe. That is probably why the
wisest Of us is not permitted to I'M
derstand the final secrets of nature.
Here is good example. Take rifle
into a 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 trig-
ger. The bullet will leave the muzzle
with velocity of, say. 5000 feet Sec
ond. 1t will rise to an enormous
height, come to standstill for an in
finitesimal fraction of second and be-
gin to fall back again. 1t will strike
the earth with very nearly but not
quite the same velocity as it left the
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 a
solid into a gas, and the expansive en-
ergy 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 80. in the next GA,
in the next 1913, and so on till it returns
with ever increasing velocity whence
it 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
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 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-
stan. 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 revolve in different or
bits. The sun, with its family Of worlds,
would alter its path round the I'M
known center about which it 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 if man could either create or en-
tirely destroy grain of sand on the
seashore. The balance of the universe,
in which swing stars and planets,
whose weight is inexpressible in human
figures (this tiny world of ours weighs
6,0OO, 900, 900, 600, 000, 100000 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 creation of
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. In the other case 1t
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
stupendous system, which has work
ed with unfailing exactitude for count
less ages, is. of course. utterly beyond
the scope of human Imagination, and
yet such seeming trifle as the creation
or destruction of single grain OF sand
might, and probably would, plunge it
into utter chaos and ruin.-Pearson's.
His Ability.