The Jasper weekly courier. [volume] (Jasper, Ind.) 1858-1922, 1918-02-01
ELECTRICITY.
sshy Il 10 Difficult For -he Lsymsn =
Understand What IL ls.


Understand What IL is.
"What is electricity" is favor
ite query with people who desire to
"get a rise" out of a scientific man
And when he fails to answer 1t IN
the same simple fashion that be
might treat the question "What IS
q biscuitP" the questioner cries out:
"Aha! You profess to know all
about electricity. Why, you can't
even tell what it isw
Now, to "tell what thing is"-
that is, to define its to state It's
relations with something more IA
miliar. The particular familiar
thing that the questioner is think
ing of in this case is ordinary mat
ter. Heat has been explained to
him as a vibration of material par
ticles Light, he has been told, is
. wa, motion in the ether, and he
underst ,nds the ether to be kind
of matter OF a substance resem-
bling matter in some particulars
| It is not to be denied that no
such simple general relationship
can be stated between electricity
and matter But, this being so. it
would be inst as correct to say that
we do not know what matter is as
that We do not know Whist electrici-
J IL. AS 8 matter Of fact we do
not know what matter Ia, and the
latest plausible theory of it builds
It up on an electric basis, so that on
this theory the idea of electricity Is
more fundamental than that Of
matter. Unfortunately our senses
have been evolved by contact with
matter and are trained to detect
only matter. Electricity they know
only secondarily, through it's action
upon matter-the light or heat that
It causes matter to give out, the at
traction that it causes certain sub
= stances to exert, and Sc on. To the
man in the street, therefore, matter
: Is familiar, and be demands a state
I msnt Of the latter in terms OF the
former, illogical though this may
! be. After thS scientist has stated
: .n this the reply comes back, "Yes,
: I understand all taat and it ID
e most clear, am sule, but tell me,
Ii then, what is electricity anyway
u Ahother source Of confusion tc
to the lay mind Is that scientific men
i do not always use the word "elec'
le triity" to mean the same thing
t The engineer often employs it u
= Il express the thing that the theorst
~ ~ ical electrician calls electric ensr
g."
he To find the energy Of electricit,
tn that is, It's ability to do work
al the electrician multiplies the guam
ri tity of electricity by the potsntia
Of or tension under which it exists
to But to the engineer this produc
ol itself measures the thing that b
calls Electricity"
J.. The work that pound OF wnte
rs may do by falling foot Is one foo
,ps pound. The water is the safne aftt
m falling as before, though its energ
in s less. So to the electrician
The quantity of electricity at 100 vol
di- is precisely the same as at one vol
OF OF though the former is able to do
nu hundred times as much work.
;. This difference in meaning caus'
thousands of disputes among st
nto dents. electricity is form
ac- energy" says one, Gust Like hgl
lte- or heat" "Oh, now Is the repl
ers 'Tt is not energy at all, though
md may possess or convey energy" Oh
nd- disputant is talking about the ele
tricity of the physical and the 9th
no nc, about that of the engineer; hen
IN IN their dispute Is merely = matter
dor definition, though they do not knt
an, L. What wonder that some peoE
pos { rs still content to regard the whf
lev sabj0ct 0s a ciyiliz l Eumbo IN
tef St To 10 Ilsa hi. -