- #1
cosmic onion
- 27
- 2
Apologies in advance. I am on page 1 of physics. My question is simple. Can I replace the word 'energy' with the word 'change' . Is energy simply 'change that has been quantified'.
Take 2 cases.
Case 1 -A boy bounces a ball and the ball changes shape and bounces through a window breaking glass and making noise which wiggles the small bones in someones ear.
Case 2 - A meteor strikes the Earth causing air in front to compress and heat and compresses ground in impact causing explosion etc.
The question is how many more balls would a boy have to bounce to create the same change as a meteor striking the earth.
To answer this we introduce the idea of energy. Which is just a way to quantify change. We can say an object has energy by virtue of its mass and it's velocity. Which is just it's propensity to create change.
Is this line of general reasoning correct ? Is this the way I should be thinking about energy. Is this the way others think about it ?
Please note I know the mathematical derivations for basic Newtonian mechanics. I'm just trying to go beyond the maths (hope that doesn'the sound pretentious).
Take 2 cases.
Case 1 -A boy bounces a ball and the ball changes shape and bounces through a window breaking glass and making noise which wiggles the small bones in someones ear.
Case 2 - A meteor strikes the Earth causing air in front to compress and heat and compresses ground in impact causing explosion etc.
The question is how many more balls would a boy have to bounce to create the same change as a meteor striking the earth.
To answer this we introduce the idea of energy. Which is just a way to quantify change. We can say an object has energy by virtue of its mass and it's velocity. Which is just it's propensity to create change.
Is this line of general reasoning correct ? Is this the way I should be thinking about energy. Is this the way others think about it ?
Please note I know the mathematical derivations for basic Newtonian mechanics. I'm just trying to go beyond the maths (hope that doesn'the sound pretentious).