North Cali Sammy
Registered Senior Member
Are we nothing more than energy expressing itself as an individual? This goes with the idea that we do not have a life, but are life itself.
Energy
- Thread starter North Cali Sammy
- Start date
exchemist
Valued Senior Member
No. This is just meaningless woo. I’m sorry but this kind of talk really annoys me.
Energy is a property of a physical system, not a substance or entity in its own right. To speak of energy, you need to specify energy of what. Energy is not “stuff”. You can’t have a jug of energy.
What can it possibly mean, then, to say energy expresses itself, without saying what system this energy is a property of?
North Cali Sammy
Registered Senior Member
Isn't matter energy?
E=MC2
E=MC2
exchemist
Valued Senior Member
No. "m" means mass, not matter. But I admit this is something of a popular misconception so you are not alone.
E=mc² does seem to be misunderstood by quite a lot of non-scientists.Mass is, like energy, a mere property of matter. You can't have a jug of mass any more than you can have a jug of energy. Mass is something that matter has. It's a property, like electric charge or momentum. Nobody thinks you can have a jug of momentum, do they? Well it's the same with mass and energy. Einstein's formula relates two properties to one another.
By the way, E=mc² is just half of Einstein's formula. There is another bit* that accounts for how massless entities, like the photons of light, also have energy. Note I say "have". Light is not energy either: light has energy, just as it also has frequency and wavelength. All these are properties, not things in their own right.
There is something of disease about, known as "quantum woo", by which charlatans like Deepak Chopra wilfully confuse concepts from quantum physics with mysticism - preferably in some nebulous way "Eastern" - and make good money out of it. Science should be about making the workings of nature clearer, not bamboozling people who don't know any better with a cloud of "sciency" but woolly ideas. If I were you I'd stay well away from anything that burbles on about "energy" or "vibrations". Usually it's crap.
* In full: E² = (mc²)² +p²c², where p is momentum. So for entities for which m=0, like photons, you get E=pc. (Yes, light has momentum, even though it has no mass.) And for entities at rest relative to the observer, p=0, so you get E=mc².
Last edited:
North Cali Sammy
Registered Senior Member
Okay... A very thoughtful reply. Thank you. I appreciate the energy you put into it.
North Cali Sammy
Registered Senior Member
Curiosity sent me to Google...
"While Einstein's famous equation, E=mc², demonstrates the equivalence of mass and energy, matter and energy are distinct concepts, not the same thing, but they are related and can be converted into each other. "
"While Einstein's famous equation, E=mc², demonstrates the equivalence of mass and energy, matter and energy are distinct concepts, not the same thing, but they are related and can be converted into each other. "
Pinball1970
Valued Senior Member
What exchemist said
This is philosophy so not my bag (like politics unless that involves Trump, WW3 and creationism)
"life" is kind of messy like the rest of biology, sure you can give some definitions but when you are talking about microbes, viruses those definitions break down and you get grey areas.
Energy, entropy, quantum get used in a way that is completely divorced from science. "Organic" is another one, best to steer clear.
North Cali Sammy
Registered Senior Member
It is obvious that life is energy. There should be no argument. It is demonstrated daily all around us.
Pinball1970
Valued Senior Member
"Life is energy," is a vague and pretty meaningless statement. Does the sea have energy? The moon?It is obvious that life is energy. There should be no argument. It is demonstrated daily all around us.
North Cali Sammy
Registered Senior Member
It's not meaningless. It's not vague. Your post is an example of that energy. You are an expression of life itself. Thank you. And yes, the waves on the surface of the sea are energy. As for the moon, she regulates the tides of the sea.
Pinball1970
Valued Senior Member
Everything in the universe has energy therefore and yet everything we see beyond our planet has no life.
Pinball1970
Valued Senior Member
Energy and life are not synonyms an are not extricable linked. The moon is dead but is motion in orbit around our planet so therefore has velocity, /angular momentum.
North Cali Sammy
Registered Senior Member
It's a big Universe. Heck, it's a big galaxy.
Pinball1970
Valued Senior Member
Yeah there may be life out there and I suspect there is. My point is life is not necessarily connected with energy.
Last edited:
North Cali Sammy
Registered Senior Member
We disagree on the point of life and energy. I need to refuel with some pancakes, butter, and syrup. Catch ya later.
DaveC426913
Valued Senior Member
You might as well disagree with which end of the egg should be cracked.
Where I come from, philosophical discussion is just a skosh more complex than a word salad deepity generator:
var words = ["Life", "Energy", "Vitality", "Nature", "The cosmos"];
while true (
print ("<b>" + words[int(random()*5)+1] + " is " + words[int(random()*5)+1] + "!</b>");
}
Life is Energy!
Nature is Vitality!
The cosmos is Life!
Last edited:
exchemist
Valued Senior Member
You are quoting from a crap source then. The first part is correct but then whoever wrote it goes off the rails by conflating mass with matter and talking crap. Can you provide a link so I can see what you are quoting from?
North Cali Sammy
Registered Senior Member
I had to convert some matter into energy (breakfast).
The universe is energy. Why not life? Life is a product of this universe.
North Cali Sammy
Registered Senior Member
exchemist
Valued Senior Member
That statement is garbage. How can a system "be" a property of a system?I had to convert some matter into energy (breakfast).
The universe is energy. Why not life? Life is a product of this universe.