Missouri Valley times. [volume] (Missouri Valley, Iowa) 1874-1931, 1902-01-23
ii AFTER AND FORCE.
ENERGY CANNOT BE CREATED NOR
CAN 1T Be DESTROYED.

IL Puny Man Could Accomplish Ell
thcr of These Impossible rhinsx.
He Could Cause ..tlle 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 lave 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 10 I'm
dcrstand the final secrets of nature.
Here is a good example. Take a rifle
into Il place sufficiently far from the
habitations Of men; put the butt OH the
ground and support it so that tie bar
rel points straight up and pull TIE trig-
ger. The bullet will leave the !nu.sle
with velocity of, say, 5000 feet Il sec
ond. 1t will rise 10 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 lut not
quite the same velocit5 as it left The
muzzle of the gun. 1t would he exact
ly the same but for the resistance OF
The air.
What has happened is this: The ex-
plosion of the powder has changed
solid into a gas. and the expansive en-
ergy of this has driven the ballet up
ward. In other words, 1t has for the
lime overcome that mysterious force
by which the earth draws everything
toward it's 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 1t falls
1G feet, In the next 32, in the next GA,
III the next 1913, and so on till it returns
with ever increasing velocity whence
1t started.
Nothing has been lost. nothing gain
ed. The gases set free by the eXplo-
sion of the powder weigh exactly as
much rs the solid Some of the energy
has been used as heat, some in propcl-
ling the bullet. Grayitation, 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 Il girls heart when she meets her
lovcr a. 1t 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 il 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 it's family of worlds,
would alter it's path round the un-
known center about which it revolves
Then world would he 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
tirely destroy II grain of sand on the
seashorc. The balance of the universe,
In which swing stars and planets,
whose weight is ineXpressible in human
figures (this tiny world of ours weighs
5000, O,OOO,O ,OOO, ,OOO, 600, 600, 900 tons, is in
tinitely more delicate than that which
the chemist has to keep in an alright
breath of air should throw it out OF
gear
Thus the destruction or creation of a
grain of sand would change the orbit
of the earth round the sun. In the
one case 1t 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 it
would gradually leave the sun and year
by year wander farther away into re-
gons of space where human life would
be impossible
The result of the dislocation of such
a stupcndous system, which has work
ed with unfailns eXactitude for count
less ages. is, Of course, utterly beyond
the scope Of human Imagination, and
yet such a seeming tritie as the creation
or destruction of single grain os sand
might, and probably would, plunge it
into utter chaos and ruin.-Pearson's.
His Ability.
"And how is my old school friend
Bimson getting onl" said the man who