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Cake day: June 30th, 2023

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  • We created an abstract concept that links ‘real’ phenomenon (the actual physical changes due to force). Humans created a concept that allows us to take a ton of seemingly unconnected forces and use this invented currency to predict the resultant forces.

    It’s obviously a stretch, and an observed pattern, but the concept of energy is almost more of an emergent phenomenon of more fundamental properties.






  • YondozaOPtoAsk Science@lemmy.worldIs energy just a manmade concept?
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    16 days ago

    All those things have energy, but they aren’t energy. For example, with microwaves the energy is proportional to the wavelength. Nuclear radiation comes in 4 forms, three of them are fast moving particles, one of them is photons. Energy allows us to say this light wave with a specific wavelength has the same amount of energy as this beta emission electron with a specific speed, mass, and charge.

    People died from the interaction small wavelength photons imparting momentum on the atoms on their body, or fast moving particles colliding with the atoms in their body.

    If someone fell off a building and died I don’t think anyone would say ‘energy did that’. The person died as a result of transferring a lot of kinetic energy to the ground though.