Energy

Energy


Concept

As with many concepts in physics, energy—along with the related ideas of work and power—has a meaning much more specific, and in some ways quite different, from its everyday connotation. According to the language of physics, a person who strains without success to pull a rock out of the ground has done no work, whereas a child playing on a playground produces a great deal of work. Energy, which may be defined as the ability of an object to do work, is neither created nor destroyed; it simply changes form, a concept that can be illustrated by the behavior of a bouncing ball.

How It Works

In fact, it might actually be more precise to say that energy is the ability of "a thing" or "something" to do work. Not only tangible objects (whether they be organic, mechanical, or electromagnetic) but also non-objects may possess energy. At the subatomic level, a particle with no mass may have energy. The same can be said of a magnetic force field.

One cannot touch a force field; hence, it is not an object—but obviously, it exists. All one has to do to prove its existence is to place a natural magnet, such as an iron nail, within the magnetic field. Assuming the force field is strong enough, the nail will move through space toward it—and thus the force field will have performed work on the nail.

Work: What It Is and Is Not

Work may be defined in general terms as the exertion of force over a given distance. In order for work to be accomplished, there must be a displacement in space—or, in colloquial terms, something has to be moved from point A to point B. As noted earlier, this definition creates results that go against the common-sense definition of "work."

A person straining, and failing, to pull a rock from the ground has performed no work (in terms of physics) because nothing has been moved. On the other hand, a child on a playground performs considerable work: as she runs from the slide to the swing, for instance, she has moved her own weight (a variety of force) across a distance. She is even working when her movement is back-and-forth, as on the swing. This type of movement results in no net displacement, but as long as displacement has occurred at all, work has occurred.




Lightning is the electric breakdown of air by strong electric fields, producing a plasma, which causes an energy transfer from the electric field to heat, mechanical energy (the random motion of air molecules caused by the heat), and light.



Similarly, when a man completes a full push-up, his body is in the same position—parallel to the floor, arms extended to support him—as he was before he began it; yet he has accomplished work. If, on the other hand, he at the end of his energy, his chest is on the floor, straining but failing, to complete just one more push-up, then he is not working. The fact that he feels as though he has worked may matter in a personal sense, but it does not in terms of physics.

Calculating Work

Work can be defined more specifically as the product of force and distance, where those two vectors are exerted in the same direction. Suppose one were to drag a block of a certain weight across a given distance of floor. The amount of force one exerts parallel to the floor itself, multiplied by the distance, is equal to the amount of work exerted. On the other hand, if one pulls up on the block in a position perpendicular to the floor, that force does not contribute toward the work of dragging the block across the floor, because it is not par allel to distance as defined in this particular situation.

Similarly, if one exerts force on the block at an angle to the floor, only a portion of that force counts toward the net product of work—a portion that must be quantified in terms of trigonometry. The line of force parallel to the floor may be thought of as the base of a triangle, with a line perpendicular to the floor as its second side. Hence there is a 90°-angle, making it a right triangle with a hypotenuse. The hypotenuse is the line of force, which again is at an angle to the floor.

The component of force that counts toward the total work on the block is equal to the total force multiplied by the cosine of the angle. A cosine is the ratio between the leg adjacent to an acute (less than 90°) angle and the hypotenuse. The leg adjacent to the acute angle is, of course, the base of the triangle, which is parallel to the floor itself. Sizes of triangles may vary, but the ratio expressed by a cosine (abbreviated cos) does not. Hence, if one is pulling on the block by a rope that makes a 30°-angle to the floor, then force must be multiplied by cos 30°, which is equal to 0.866.

Note that the cosine is less than 1; hence when multiplied by the total force exerted, it will yield a figure 13.4% smaller than the total force. In fact, the larger the angle, the smaller the cosine; thus for 90°, the value of cos = 0. On the other hand, for an angle of 0°, cos = 1. Thus, if total force is exerted parallel to the floor—that is, at a 0°-angle to it—then the component of force that counts toward total work is equal to the total force. From the standpoint of physics, this would be a highly work-intensive operation.

Gravity and Other Peculiarities of Work

The above discussion relates entirely to work along a horizontal plane. On the vertical plane, by contrast, work is much simpler to calculate due to the presence of a constant downward force, which is, of course, gravity. The force of gravity accelerates objects at a rate of 32 ft (9.8 m)/sec2. The mass (m) of an object multiplied by the rate of gravitational acceleration (g) yields its weight, and the formula for work done against gravity is equal to weight multiplied by height (h) above some lower reference point: mgh.

Distance and force are both vectors—that is, quantities possessing both magnitude and direction. Yet work, though it is the product of these two vectors, is a scalar, meaning that only the magnitude of work (and not the direction over which it is exerted) is important. Hence mgh can refer either to the upward work one exerts against gravity (that is, by lifting an object to a certain height), or to the downward work that gravity performs on the object when it is dropped. The direction of h does not matter, and its value is purely relative, referring to the vertical distance between one point and another.

The fact that gravity can "do work"—and the irrelevance of direction—further illustrates the truth that work, in the sense in which it is applied by physicists, is quite different from "work" as it understood in the day-to-day world. There is a highly personal quality to the everyday meaning of the term, which is completely lacking from its physics definition.

If someone carried a heavy box up five flights of stairs, that person would quite naturally feel justified in saying "I've worked." Certainly he or she would feel that the work expended was far greater than that of someone who had simply allowed the the elevator to carry the box up those five floors. Yet in terms of work done against gravity, the work done on the box by the elevator is exactly the same as that performed by the person carrying it upstairs. The identity of the "worker"—not to mention the sweat expended or not expended—is irrelevant from the standpoint of physics.

Measurement of Work and Power

In the metric system, a newton (N) is the amount of force required to accelerate 1 kg of mass by 1 meter per second squared (m/s2). Work is measured by the joule (J), equal to 1 newton-meter (N · m). The British unit of force is the pound, and work is measured in foot-pounds, or the work done by a force of 1 lb over a distance of one foot.

Power, the rate at which work is accomplished over time, is the same as work divided by time. It can also be calculated in terms of force multiplied by speed, much like the force-multiplied-by-distance formula for work. However, as with work, the force and speed must be in the same direction. Hence, the formula for power in these terms is F · cos θ · v, where F=force, v=speed, and cos θ is equal to the cosine of the angle θ (the Greek letter theta) between F and the direction of v.

The metric-system measure of power is the watt, named after James Watt (1736-1819), the Scottish inventor who developed the first fully viable steam engine and thus helped inaugurate the Industrial Revolution. A watt is equal to 1 joule per second, but this is such a small unit that it is more typical to speak in terms of kilowatts, or units of 1,000 watts.

Ironically, Watt himself—like most people in the British Isles and America—lived in a world that used the British system, in which the unit of power is the foot-pound per second. The latter, too, is very small, so for measuring the power of his steam engine, Watt suggested a unit based on something quite familiar to the people of his time: the power of a horse. One horsepower (hp) is equal to 550 foot-pounds per second.




Thomas Young - the first to use the term "energy" in the modern sense.




Sorting Out Metric and British Units

The British system, of course, is horridly cumbersome compared to the metric system, and thus it long ago fell out of favor with the international scientific community. The British system is the product of loosely developed conventions that emerged over time: for instance, a foot was based on the length of the reigning king's foot, and in time, this became standardized. By contrast, the metric system was created quite deliberately over a matter of just a few years following the French Revolution, which broke out in 1789. The metric system was adopted ten years later.

During the revolutionary era, French intellectuals believed that every aspect of existence could and should be treated in highly rational, scientific terms. Out of these ideas arose much folly—especially after the supposedly "rational" leaders of the revolution began chopping off people's heads—but one of the more positive outcomes was the metric system. This system, based entirely on the number 10 and its exponents, made it easy to relate one figure to another: for instance, there are 100 centimeters in a meter and 1,000 meters in a kilometer. This is vastly more convenient than converting 12 inches to a foot, and 5,280 feet to a mile.

For this reason, scientists—even those from the Anglo-American world—use the metric system for measuring not only horizontal space, but volume, temperature, pressure, work, power, and so on. Within the scientific community, in fact, the metric system is known as SI, an abbreviation of the French Système International d'Unités—that is, "International System of Units."

Americans have shown little interest in adopting the SI system, yet where power is concerned, there is one exception. For measuring the power of a mechanical device, such as an automobile or even a garbage disposal, Americans use the British horsepower. However, for measuring electrical power, the SI kilowatt is used. When an electric utility performs a meter reading on a family's power usage, it measures that usage in terms of electrical "work" performed for the family, and thus bills them by the kilowatt-hour.

Three Types of Energy

Kinetic and Potential Energy Formulae

Earlier, energy was defined as the ability of an object to accomplish work—a definition that by this point has acquired a great deal more meaning. There are three types of energy: kinetic energy, or the energy that something possesses by virtue of its motion; potential energy, the energy it possesses by virtue of its position; and rest energy, the energy it possesses by virtue of its mass.

The formula for kinetic energy is KE = ½ mv2. In other words, for an object of mass m, kinetic energy is equal to half the mass multiplied by the square of its speed v. The actual derivation of this formula is a rather detailed process, involving reference to the second of the three laws of motion formulated by Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727.) The second law states that F = ma, in other words, that force is equal to mass multiplied by acceleration. In order to understand kinetic energy, it is necessary, then, to understand the formula for uniform acceleration. The latter is vf2 = v02 + 2as, where vf2 is the final speed of the object, v02 its initial speed, a acceleration and s distance. By substituting values within these equations, one arrives at the formula of ½ mv2 for kinetic energy.

The above is simply another form of the general formula for work—since energy is, after all, the ability to perform work. In order to produce an amount of kinetic energy equal to ½ mv2 within an object, one must perform an amount of work on it equal to Fs. Hence, kinetic energy also equals Fs, and thus the preceding paragraph simply provides a means for translating that into more specific terms.

The potential energy (PE) formula is much simpler, but it also relates to a work formula given earlier: that of work done against gravity. Potential energy, in this instance, is simply a function of gravity and the distance h above some reference point. Hence, its formula is the same as that for work done against gravity, mgh or wh, where w stands for weight. (Note that this refers to potential energy in a gravitational field; potential energy may also exist in an electromagnetic field, in which case the formula would be different from the one presented here.)



A Calorimeter - An instrument used by physicists to measure energy



Rest Energy and Its Intriguing Formula

Finally, there is rest energy, which, though it may not sound very exciting, is in fact the most intriguing—and the most complex—of the three. Ironically, the formula for rest energy is far, far more complex in derivation than that for potential or even kinetic energy, yet it is much more well-known within the popular culture.

Indeed, E = mc2 is perhaps the most famous physics formula in the world—even more so than the much simpler F = ma. The formula for rest energy, as many people know, comes from the man whose Theory of Relativity invalidated certain specifics of the Newtonian framework: Albert Einstein (1879-1955). As for what the formula actually means, that will be discussed later.



Heat, a form of energy, is partly potential energy and partly kinetic energy.



Real-Life Applications

Falling and Bouncing Balls

One of the best—and most frequently used—illustrations of potential and kinetic energy involves standing at the top of a building, holding a baseball over the side. Naturally, this is not an experiment to perform in real life. Due to its relatively small mass, a falling baseball does not have a great amount of kinetic energy, yet in the real world, a variety of other conditions (among them inertia, the tendency of an object to maintain its state of motion) conspire to make a hit on the head with a baseball potentially quite serious. If dropped from a great enough height, it could be fatal.

When one holds the baseball over the side of the building, potential energy is at a peak, but once the ball is released, potential energy begins to decrease in favor of kinetic energy. The relationship between these, in fact, is inverse: as the value of one decreases, that of the other increases in exact proportion. The ball will only fall to the point where its potential energy becomes 0, the same amount of kinetic energy it possessed before it was dropped. At the same point, kinetic energy will have reached maximum value, and will be equal to the potential energy the ball possessed at the beginning. Thus the sum of kinetic energy and potential energy remains constant, reflecting the conservation of energy, a subject discussed below.

It is relatively easy to understand how the ball acquires kinetic energy in its fall, but potential energy is somewhat more challenging to comprehend. The ball does not really "possess" the potential energy: potential energy resides within an entire system comprised by the ball, the space through which it falls, and the Earth. There is thus no "magic" in the reciprocal relationship between potential and kinetic energy: both are part of a single system, which can be envisioned by means of an analogy.

Imagine that one has a 20-dollar bill, then buys a pack of gum. Now one has, say, $19.20. The positive value of dollars has decreased by $0.80, but now one has increased "non-dollars" or "anti-dollars" by the same amount. After buying lunch, one might be down to $12.00, meaning that "anti-dollars" are now up to $8.00. The same will continue until the entire $20.00 has been spent. Obviously, there is nothing magical about this: the 20-dollar bill was a closed system, just like the one that included the ball and the ground. And just as potential energy decreased while kinetic energy increased, so "non-dollars" increased while dollars decreased.



As a ball falls freely under the influence of gravity, it accelerates downward, its initial potential energy converting into kinetic energy. On impact with a hard surface the ball deforms, converting the kinetic energy into elastic potential energy. As the ball springs back, the energy converts back firstly to kinetic energy and then as the ball re-gains height into potential energy. Energy losses due to inelastic deformation and air resistance cause each successive bounce to be lower than the last.



Bouncing Back

The example of the baseball illustrates one of the most fundamental laws in the universe, the conservation of energy: within a system isolated from all other outside factors, the total amount of energy remains the same, though transformations of energy from one form to another take place. An interesting example of this comes from the case of another ball and another form of vertical motion.

This time instead of a baseball, the ball should be one that bounces: any ball will do, from a basketball to a tennis ball to a superball. And rather than falling from a great height, this one is dropped through a range of motion ordinary for a human being bouncing a ball. It hits the floor and bounces back—during which time it experiences a complex energy transfer.

As was the case with the baseball dropped from the building, the ball (or more specifically, the system involving the ball and the floor) possesses maximum potential energy prior to being released. Then, in the split-second before its impact on the floor, kinetic energy will be at a maximum while potential energy reaches zero.

So far, this is no different than the baseball scenario discussed earlier. But note what happens when the ball actually hits the floor: it stops for an infinitesimal fraction of a moment. What has happened is that the impact on the floor (which in this example is assumed to be perfectly rigid) has dented the surface of the ball, and this saps the ball's kinetic energy just at the moment when the energy had reached its maximum value. In accordance with the energy conservation law, that energy did not simply disappear: rather, it was transferred to the floor.

Meanwhile, in the wake of its huge energy loss, the ball is motionless. An instant later, however, it reabsorbs kinetic energy from the floor, undents, and rebounds. As it flies upward, its kinetic energy begins to diminish, but potential energy increases with height. Assuming that the person who released it catches it at exactly the same height at which he or she let it go, then potential energy is at the level it was before the ball was dropped.

When a Ball Loses Its Bounce

The above, of course, takes little account of energy "loss"—that is, the transfer of energy from one body to another. In fact, a part of the ball's kinetic energy will be lost to the floor because friction with the floor will lead to an energy transfer in the form of thermal, or heat, energy. The sound that the ball makes when it bounces also requires a slight energy loss; but friction—a force that resists motion when the surface of one object comes into contact with the surface of another—is the principal culprit where energy transfer is concerned.

Of particular importance is the way the ball responds in that instant when it hits bottom and stops. Hard rubber balls are better suited for this purpose than soft ones, because the harder the rubber, the greater the tendency of the molecules to experience only elastic deformation. What this means is that the spacing between molecules changes, yet their overall position does not.

If, however, the molecules change positions, this causes them to slide against one another, which produces friction and reduces the energy that goes into the bounce. Once the internal friction reaches a certain threshold, the ball is "dead"—that is, unable to bounce. The deader the ball is, the more its kinetic energy turns into heat upon impact with the floor, and the less energy remains for bouncing upward.

Varieties of Energy in Action

The preceding illustration makes several references to the conversion of kinetic energy to thermal energy, but it should be stressed that there are only three fundamental varieties of energy: potential, kinetic, and rest. Though heat is often discussed as a form unto itself, this is done only because the topic of heat or thermal energy is complex: in fact, thermal energy is simply a result of the kinetic energy between molecules.

To draw a parallel, most languages permit the use of only three basic subject-predicate constructions: first person ("I"), second person ("you"), and third person ("he/she/it.") Yet within these are endless varieties such as singular and plural nouns or various temporal orientations of verbs: present ("I go"); present perfect ("I have gone"); simple past ("I went"); past perfect ("I had gone.") There are even "moods," such as the subjunctive or hypothetical, which permit the construction of complex thoughts such as "I would have gone." Yet for all this variety in terms of sentence pattern—actually, a degree of variety much greater than for that of energy types—all subject-predicate constructions can still be identified as first, second, or third person.

One might thus describe thermal energy as a manifestation of energy, rather than as a discrete form. Other such manifestations include electromagnetic (sometimes divided into electrical and magnetic), sound, chemical, and nuclear. The principles governing most of these are similar: for instance, the positive or negative attraction between two electromagnetically charged particles is analogous to the force of gravity.

Mechanical Energy

One term not listed among manifestations of energy is mechanical energy, which is something different altogether: the sum of potential and kinetic energy. A dropped or bouncing ball was used as a convenient illustration of interactions within a larger system of mechanical energy, but the example could just as easily have been a roller coaster, which, with its ups and downs, quite neatly illustrates the sliding scale of kinetic and potential energy.

Likewise, the relationship of Earth to the Sun is one of potential and kinetic energy transfers: as with the baseball and Earth itself, the planet is pulled by gravitational force toward the larger body. When it is relatively far from the Sun, it possesses a higher degree of potential energy, whereas when closer, its kinetic energy is highest. Potential and kinetic energy can also be illustrated within the realm of electromagnetic, as opposed to gravitational, force: when a nail is some distance from a magnet, its potential energy is high, but as it moves toward the magnet, kinetic energy increases.

Energy Conversion in a Dam

A dam provides a beautiful illustration of energy conversion: not only from potential to kinetic, but from energy in which gravity provides the force component to energy based in electromagnetic force. A dam big enough to be used for generating hydroelectric power forms a vast steel-and-concrete curtain that holds back millions of tons of water from a river or other body. The water nearest the top—the "head" of the dam—thus has enormous potential energy.

Hydroelectric power is created by allowing controlled streams of this water to flow downward, gathering kinetic energy that is then transferred to powering turbines. Dams in popular vacation spots often release a certain amount of water for recreational purposes during the day. This makes it possible for rafters, kayakers, and others downstream to enjoy a relatively fast-flowing river. (Or, to put it another way, a stream with high kinetic energy.) As the day goes on, however, the sluice-gates are closed once again to build up the "head." Thus when night comes, and energy demand is relatively high as people retreat to their homes, vacation cabins, and hotels, the dam is ready to provide the power they need.

Other Manifestations of Energy

Thermal and electromagnetic energy are much more readily recognizable manifestations of energy, yet sound and chemical energy are two forms that play a significant part as well. Sound, which is essentially nothing more than the series of pressure fluctuations within a medium such as air, possesses enormous energy: consider the example of a singer hitting a certain note and shattering a glass.

Contrary to popular belief, the note does not have to be particularly high: rather, the note should be on the same wavelength as the glass's own vibrations. When this occurs, sound energy is transferred directly to the glass, which is shattered by this sudden net intake of energy. Sound waves can be much more destructive than that: not only can the sound of very loud music cause permanent damage to the ear drums, but also, sound waves of certain frequencies and decibel levels can actually drill through steel. Indeed, sound is not just a by-product of an explosion; it is part of the destructive force.

As for chemical energy, it is associated with the pull that binds together atoms within larger molecular structures. The formation of water molecules, for instance, depends on the chemical bond between hydrogen and oxygen atoms. The combustion of materials is another example of chemical energy in action.

With both chemical and sound energy, however, it is easy to show how these simply reflect the larger structure of potential and kinetic energy discussed earlier. Hence sound, for instance, is potential energy when it emerges from a source, and becomes kinetic energy as it moves toward a receiver (for example, a human ear). Furthermore, the molecules in a combustible material contain enormous chemical potential energy, which becomes kinetic energy when released in a fire.

Rest Energy and Its Nuclear Manifestation

Nuclear energy is similar to chemical energy, though in this instance, it is based on the binding of particles within an atom and its nucleus. But it is also different from all other kinds of energy, because its force component is neither gravitational nor electromagnetic, but based on one of two other known varieties of force: strong nuclear and weak nuclear. Furthermore, nuclear energy—to a much greater extent than thermal or chemical energy—involves not only kinetic and potential energy, but also the mysterious, extraordinarily powerful, form known as rest energy.

Throughout this discussion, there has been little mention of rest energy; yet it is ever-present. Kinetic and potential energy rise and fall with respect to one another; but rest energy changes little. In the baseball illustration, for instance, the ball had the same rest energy at the top of the building as it did in flight—the same rest energy, in fact, that it had when sitting on the ground. And its rest energy is enormous.

Nuclear Warfare

This brings back the subject of the rest energy formula: E = mc2, famous because it made possible the creation of the atomic bomb. The latter, which fortunately has been detonated in warfare only twice in history, brought a swift end to World War II when the United States unleashed it against Japan in August 1945. From the beginning, it was clear that the atom bomb possessed staggering power, and that it would forever change the way nations conducted their affairs in war and peace.

Yet the atom bomb involved only nuclear fission, or the splitting of an atom, whereas the hydrogen bomb that appeared just a few years after the end of World War II used an even more powerful process, the nuclear fusion of atoms. Hence, the hydrogen bomb upped the ante to a much greater extent, and soon the two nuclear superpowers—the United States and the Soviet Union—possessed the power to destroy most of the life on Earth.

The next four decades were marked by a superpower struggle to control "the bomb" as it came to be known—meaning any and all nuclear weapons. Initially, the United States controlled all atomic secrets through its heavily guarded Manhattan Project, which created the bombs used against Japan. Soon, however, spies such as Julius and Ethel Rosenberg provided the Soviets with U.S. nuclear secrets, ensuring that the dictatorship of Josef Stalin would possess nuclear capabilities as well. (The Rosenbergs were executed for treason, and their alleged innocence became a celebrated cause among artists and intellectuals; however, Soviet documents released since the collapse of the Soviet empire make it clear that they were guilty as charged.)

Both nations began building up missile arsenals. It was not, however, just a matter of the United States and the Soviet Union. By the 1970s, there were at least three other nations in the "nuclear club": Britain, France, and China. There were also other countries on the verge of developing nuclear bombs, among them India and Israel. Furthermore, there was a great threat that a terrorist leader such as Libya's Muammar al-Qaddafi would acquire nuclear weapons and do the unthinkable: actually use them.

Though other nations acquired nuclear weapons, however, the scale of the two super-power arsenals dwarfed all others. And at the heart of the U.S.-Soviet nuclear competition was a sort of high-stakes chess game—to use a metaphor mentioned frequently during the 1970s. Soviet leaders and their American counterparts both recognized that it would be the end of the world if either unleashed their nuclear weapons; yet each was determined to be able to meet the other's ever-escalating nuclear threat.

United States President Ronald Reagan earned harsh criticism at home for his nuclear buildup and his hard line in negotiations with Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev; but as a result of this one-upmanship, he put the Soviets into a position where they could no longer compete. As they put more and more money into nuclear weapons, they found themselves less and less able to uphold their already weak economic system. This was precisely Reagan's purpose in using American economic might to outspend the Soviets—or, in the case of the proposed multi-trillion-dollar Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI or "Star Wars")—threatening to outspend them. The Soviets expended much of their economic energy in competing with U.S. military strength, and this (along with a number of other complex factors), spelled the beginning of the end of the Communist empire.

E = Mc2

The purpose of the preceding historical brief is to illustrate the epoch-making significance of a single scientific formula: E = mc2. It ended World War II and ensured that no war like it would ever happen again—but brought on the specter of global annihilation. It created a superpower struggle—yet it also ultimately helped bring about the end of Soviet totalitarianism, thus opening the way for a greater level of peace and economic and cultural exchange than the world has ever known. Yet nuclear arsenals still remain, and the nuclear threat is far from over.

So just what is this literally earth-shattering formula? E stands for rest energy, m for mass, and c for the speed of light, which is 186,000 mi (297,600 km) per second. Squared, this yields an almost unbelievably staggering number.

Hence, even an object of insignificant mass possesses an incredible amount of rest energy. The baseball, for instance, weighs only about 0.333 lb, which—on Earth, at least—converts to 0.15 kg. (The latter is a unit of mass, as opposed to weight.) Yet when factored into the rest energy equation, it yields about 3.75 billion kilowatt-hours—enough to provide an American home with enough electrical power to last it more than 156,000 years!

How can a mere baseball possess such energy? It is not the baseball in and of itself, but its mass; thus every object with mass of any kind possesses rest energy. Often, mass energy can be released in very small quantities through purely thermal or chemical processes: hence, when a fire burns, an almost infinitesimal portion of the matter that went into making the fire is converted into energy. If a stick of dynamite that weighed 2.2 lb (1 kg) exploded, the portion of it that "disappeared" would be equal to 6 parts out of 100 billion; yet that portion would cause a blast of considerable proportions.

As noted much earlier, the derivation of Einstein's formula—and, more to the point, how he came to recognize the fundamental principles involved—is far beyond the scope of this essay. What is important is the fact, hypothesized by Einstein and confirmed in subsequent experiments, that matter is convertible to energy, a fact that becomes apparent when matter is accelerated to speeds close to that of light.

Physicists do not possess a means for propelling a baseball to a speed near that of light—or of controlling its behavior and capturing its energy. Instead, atomic energy—whether of the wartime or peacetime varieties (that is, in power plants)—involves the acceleration of mere atomic particles. Nor is any atom as good as another. Typically physicists use uranium and other extremely rare minerals, and often, they further process these minerals in highly specialized ways. It is the rarity and expense of those minerals, incidentally—not the difficulty of actually putting atomic principles to work—that has kept smaller nations from developing their own nuclear arsenals.