Releasing stored energy

[Shannen Durphey]

Joe Boucher wrote:

> A lot of what you're saying when taken as an individual statement is correct, but
> according to my education you are mixing
> up some concepts.
>
> Inertia is a property of matter. I don't remember doing calculations to figure the
> amount of inertia a system had or units of
> inertia.  Now, momentum is another thing.
>
> Potential energy is computed by relative position to something else such as comparison
> of a spring or height above one surface to another in a gravity field.  The rock to
> it's height above another surface in the direction of gravity.  A compressed spring in
> the axis of the compression.  If potential energy wasn't measurable or computable,
> then how would someone figure out how much energy a hydro-electric power plant is
> capable of producing?
>
> Kinetic energy is the relative motion between two bodies.
>
> A baseball hits a wall and converts it's kinetic energy into potential energy through
> compression of the ball and the wall.  The potential energy is reconverted into motion
> in the other direction by the wall and the ball releasing its potential energies.
> Since this is not an isentropic action, some potential energy is lost and the spot on
> the wall and the ball are hotter than before the collision and the ball is moving
> slower.
>
> A block is a distance Y above the ground and is released.
> At time 0:
> Potential energy = gravity x Y = gY
> Kinetic energy = 1/2 x mass x Vsquared = 1/2mVsquared = 0
>
> at Y = 0
> Potential energy = gravity x Y = gY = 0
> Kinetic energy = 1/2 x mass x Vsquared = 1/2mVsquared = 1/2m(g x time of the
> fall)squared.
>
> This is what I was taught.  You may be on to a different way to view the universe, but
> you're going to have to come up with your own math system.
>
> I think I have said what I'm going to say about this.
>
> Joe Boucher
> '70 RS/SS Camaro  '81 TBI Suburban
>
>

  I've been thinking about this all day.

Yup, inertia is only a property of mass.  Doesn't matter how fast the mass is moving, it
still has the same resistance to a change in motion.

Didn't doubt that I was mixing up some concepts.  Figured I was probably making some up as
well. Just trying to relate what I knew and rembered with what was already defined.

Still having trouble with some aspects of potential energy, but I'll let it lie.

Well, it was fun.  I've lost a lot of what I learned (and that wasn't much) simply because
there's no call to use it.  I don't get too many opportunities to ramble on like that.  I
do know a 2nd year engineering student, and I think I'll try to burn him out this
weekend.  He's ambitious enough to try and set me straight. : )

Afraid to say it, but I think I already have a different way of viewing the universe.
Like I said, I've gotta get back into school while I'm still young enough to learn
something.

Later
Shannen