In remarks during a ribbon-cutting ceremony here on Wednesday, Gov. George E. Pataki said he expected the facility to generate thousands more jobs in the Hudson Valley area for contractors and suppliers catering to the factory. He praised IBM for being "a critical partner in our economic development efforts" in New York state. In a brief speech, Samuel J. Palmisano, IBM's chief executive, emphasized that it was important to make long-term investments despite the current slump in the technology business. "To play to win in technology, you innovate and you lead," he said. But manufacturing technology products is a costly and cyclical business. In June, IBM announced that it was taking a charge of more than $2 billion against earnings. The largest single reasons for the charge were the cost of getting out of the business of manufacturing hard disks for storage, which it sold to Hitachi, and closing down some of its older semiconductor operations. But Kelly said the demand for advanced chips, like those produced at IBM's facility in Burlington, Vt., is strong. "I need more capacity in that end of the market," he said, "and this is factory is critical to meeting that growing demand." If IBM has miscalculated the demand, it will suffer badly as both the high operating costs and depreciation on the huge capital investment for the East Fishkill factory drag down earnings. But industry analysts said the plant should be insulated from a falloff in one or a few segments of the semiconductor market.

Who asked for more capacity in that end of the market?

If you build a campfire, you start with a large stack of sticks and logs. As the fire burns, the stack slowly shrinks. By the end of the evening, all that is left is a small pile of ashes. What happened to the matter that you started with? Was it destroyed by the flames? It may seem that way. What do you think happened? The truth is that the same amount of matter still exists. The wood changed not only to ashes, but also to carbon dioxide, water vapor, and other gases. The gases floated off into the air, leaving behind just the ashes. Although matter was changed, it was not created or destroyed. Because the same amount of matter still exists, we can say that matter is conserved. You may wonder how it can be conserved if something is now missing? Assume you had measured the mass of the wood before you burned it. Assume you had also trapped the gases released by the burning wood and measured their mass and the mass of the ashes. What would you find? The ashes and gases combined have the same mass as the wood you started with. This example illustrates the law of conservation of mass.

What happens to sticks and logs in a campfire?

Energy is stored in chemical compounds. This energy is called chemical energy. Chemical energy is a form of potential energy. When bonds between atoms are broken, energy is released. The wood in fireplaces has chemical energy. The energy is released as heat and light when the wood burns. Most living things get their energy from food. When food molecules are broken down, the energy is released. It may then be used to do work, like playing ball or studying science. If you have ever heard, "Eat a good breakfast", thats why. You need energy to do things during the day. To do those things you need energy. You get your energy from the food you eat. That energy is stored in your body until you need it. How did you get to school today? If you walked, you used chemical energy from the food you ate. What if you rode the bus or were driven in a car? Where did that energy come from?
What kind of energy is stored in chemical compounds?