Evening star., 1924-12-31
SUNBEAM OFFERS
BATTLING PUZZLE
Problem Is Whether Energy Can
Be Destroyed, Then Recreated
From Nothing.

Locked in the sunbeam which steals
| under your curtain is one of the most
battling problems in all nature-the
problem of whether energy can be
destroyed and then recreate itself out
of nothing.
The old high school physics text
books used to say that energy could
not be destroyed. When Jack Demp-
sey punches somebody's jaw the ener-
gy that sends out the punch does not
sudd enly cease when the blow is de-
livered. 1t transfers itself to the
recipient. He, in turn, falls on the
floor of the ring and the energy is
delivered to the boards. They in turn
redeliver it to something else. But
the exact amount of energy which
Jack Dempsey sent out is retained
forever. somewhere in the universe.
Contradiction Apparent.
But there is an apparent contra
diction to this law. 1t was brought
out yesterday before members of the
American Physical Society by Prof.
! w. F. G. Swami of Yale University,
in speaking of the present trend of
thought in physics. 1t brings up one
of the lfvelieSt controversies in science
today.
Light is popularity understood to
when boy throws a stone in a pond
waves spread out which gradually
grow less and less until they disap-
pear. That means that the energy
with. which they started, the energy
caused by throwing the stone into
the water, has become dissipated
throughout the pond. The energy is
there somewhere, only it no longer
is a cohesive force.
Light, apparently, travels from the
sum in much the same way as those
waves in the water. The only differ
ence is that there is some mysterious
law involved somehow, so that if the
water waves acted in exactly the
same way as the light waves they
would pick up A stone at the other
end of the pond and throw it up in
the air the same distance as it orig
inally was thrown down by the boy.
Energy Exerts Force.
That is. the light wave energy ap-
parently becomes dissipated in space.
But when it hits an electBon it eXerts
upon this infinitely little particle the
left the sun.
Suddenly, out of nothing, all the
energy which the light wave lost in
it's long journey reappears.
The recently accepted answer to
this is that light in some way, while
retaining the wave movement, be-
cause physical phenomena is such
that this cannot be explained away,
nevertheless travels as the stone
would travel if thrown across the
pond by the boy to hit boy on the
other side, rather than dropped into
the water SO as to set up waves. This
is the quanta theory of light, the
light moves in little particles thrown
off by the sun. The principal expo
nent of this principle is Einstein, the
author of the theory of a relativity.
But this doesn't explain the nu-
merous phenomena which demand
that light travel in waves and not in
particles.
Neither do they explain why the
light wave, which apparently has
been robbed of it's energy in space, de-
livers such a healthy blow when il
hits the electron.
Hold to Average Conservation.
Dr. Swami explained that recently
some physicists, unwilling to accept
the quanta theory as against the
wave theory, had dropped the idea OF
| the absolute conservation of energy
| and hold only to the average conser-
walton of energy. That is, they say
| that there is always the same amount
| of energy in the universe, but
| that it may not be possible to follow
| it in a straight line.
They say that light really travels
! in waves and that it's energy disap.
pears just as the energy of the waves
! set up by the stone in the water dis
| appears. And then, at the moment
| when it is needed, new energy is
| somehow evolved.
| Physicists are seeking an answer tC
| the problem in further study of the
| action of light on electrons, but II
| remains SO puzzling that for the
present two almost contradictory
! ideas of the nature of light must be
held in order to explain everything
! that happens. If one day the scien-
! tiSt needs to consider light as travel.
| ing in much the same way as the
waves set up by the stone thrown
| into the water he is free to do so
Next day he may need to consider
light as moving in the same way as
| the stone which the boy throws
across the pond to hit the other boy
| He is free to do this also.
| DIR. Swami brought out that. while
| the new conceptions that have beer
] brought into physics in the past few
! years may prove hard to accept, il
| they prove workable in view of the
| facts at hand the physicist is justified
/ in using them, even il he reserves
| his judgment as to whether they rep
resent final stating of laws of ma
| ture He dwelt on the Einstein theo.
ry of relativity as a case in point
This explains some things which can.
| not be explained in any other way
in the light of present knowledge.
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