The Jasper weekly courier. [volume] (Jasper, Ind.) 1858-1922, 1918-06-28
ELECTRICITY.
why IL is Difficult For the Laymnn I.
Understand What II In.


Understand What IL Is
what Is electricity" is a favor
lite query with people who desire to
get rise" OUT of scientific man.
And when he fails to answer it in
the same simple fashion that he
might treat the question "What is
biscmt| the questioner cries out:
"Aha! You profess to know an
about electricity. Why, you car t
even tell what / ist'
i Now, to ''tell what a thing is
that is, to define its IL state ia
relations with something more "a
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 "a vibration OF material par
ticles. Iight, he has been told, il
wa' motion in the ether, and he
understands the ether to be a kind
or matter or a substance resem-
bling matter in some particulars.
1t is not to be denied that no
such- simple general relationship
can be stated between electricity
and matter. But, this being so, il
would be just as correct to say that
We do not know what matter is as
that we do not know what electrici-
ty Is. As matter OF fact, we do
not know what matter is, and the
latest plausible theory of it builds
it up on an electric basis. so that on
this thecry..the idea Of electricity is
more fundamenta' than that %
matter. Unfortunately or senses
have been evolved by contact with
matter and are trained to deteot
only matter. ELECTRICITY they know
only secondarily, through It's action
upon matter-the Light or heat tha.
it causes matter to give out, the at
traction that it causes certain sub
stances to exert, and SO on. To the
man in the street, therefore, matter
is familiar, and he demands a state
ment Of the latter in terms of the
former, illogical though this may
be. After the scientist has stated
all this the reply comes back, eyes.
l understand all that, and it is
most clear, I am sure, but tell me,
thep, what is electricity anyway ?"
Another source of confusion to
the lay mind is that scientific men
do not always use the word "elec-
tricity" to mean the came thing.
The engineer often employs it to
express the thing that the thecret-
ical electrician calls electric ener-
g."
To find the energy Of electricity
that is, its ability to do work
the electrician multiplies the guam
tity of electricity by the potential
or tension under which it exists,
But to the engineer this product
itself measures the thing that he
calls Electricity"
The work that a pound of water
may do by falling n foot is one foot
pound. The water is the same after
talling as before, though its enerfy
ls less. So 10 the electrician [,
quantity of electricity at 100 30.
s precisely the same rs at one 20
though the former j. able to do
aundred times rs much work.
This differeu = in meaning cause,
thousands of disp.tes among st.
lents. ELECTRICITY IS form =
says one. "ast ike hgit
IT heat" "Oh, no. Is the reply.
1t is not energy al ii, though /.
nay possess or convey energy" Or
lisputant is talking abo I tie e'e,.
.ricity of the physical and the other
lbout that Of the engineer; hence
heir dispute is merely a matter o.
lefnition, though they do not know
{ What wonder that some people
re still content to regard the whole
7bj'ct a. a civ liz / Mumbo jim
o?- st. To IS Zen hi. ~
rIeTIo! sfelios t.el'oi