RACHAEL AND MELVYN
On ENERGY
R. Uncle Melvyn…
M. Mm?
R. What’s energy?
M. Energy! I’m not much good at physics. Why do you want to know?
R. Well, I’m told it created the cosmos at the Big Bang, it lights my torch bulb; it sits in food and petrol….it’s everywhere and is potentially infinitely powerful; and I want to know what it is!
M. Sounds a bit like God…
R. But it’s mindless…
M. Unless someone is directing it.
R. Yes, yes. But WHAT IS IT! And where does it come from?
M. Don’t know.
R. That’s not much help.
M. I think it’s just an idea. A hypothesis. An abstraction. Like gravity.
R. Gravity? That’s real enough isn’t it? Isaac Newton saw an apple fall and discovered it.
M. But he didn’t know what it was. Gravity is just heaviness, whatever that means. Before he came along people thought it was a kind of love.
R. Love? That’s crazy! You have to be a person to do love.
M. They saw love as a mysterious force that draws things together. An apple desires the ground; a flame desires heaven. Love of the earth stops the planets spinning away.
R. You said it was crystal spheres.
M. I think I may be getting my metaphors mixed.
R. The trouble is that if you look things up in the dictionary, they say energy is a kind of power, power is a kind of force and so on. It just goes round and round.
M. That’s dictionaries for you. But you can talk about the effects of something, even if you don’t know what it is.
R. Newton said you can’t get rid of energy. It just pops up somewhere else. And then Einstein said E=mc 2
M. So now mass can turn into energy!
R. And the sun is just a continuous hydrogen bomb.
M. You’ve been looking things up!
R. But we still don’t know what energy IS, do we?
M. Nope. Let’s have a marmalade toastie.
R. And a mug of tea?
M. Mm?
R. What’s energy?
M. Energy! I’m not much good at physics. Why do you want to know?
R. Well, I’m told it created the cosmos at the Big Bang, it lights my torch bulb; it sits in food and petrol….it’s everywhere and is potentially infinitely powerful; and I want to know what it is!
M. Sounds a bit like God…
R. But it’s mindless…
M. Unless someone is directing it.
R. Yes, yes. But WHAT IS IT! And where does it come from?
M. Don’t know.
R. That’s not much help.
M. I think it’s just an idea. A hypothesis. An abstraction. Like gravity.
R. Gravity? That’s real enough isn’t it? Isaac Newton saw an apple fall and discovered it.
M. But he didn’t know what it was. Gravity is just heaviness, whatever that means. Before he came along people thought it was a kind of love.
R. Love? That’s crazy! You have to be a person to do love.
M. They saw love as a mysterious force that draws things together. An apple desires the ground; a flame desires heaven. Love of the earth stops the planets spinning away.
R. You said it was crystal spheres.
M. I think I may be getting my metaphors mixed.
R. The trouble is that if you look things up in the dictionary, they say energy is a kind of power, power is a kind of force and so on. It just goes round and round.
M. That’s dictionaries for you. But you can talk about the effects of something, even if you don’t know what it is.
R. Newton said you can’t get rid of energy. It just pops up somewhere else. And then Einstein said E=mc 2
M. So now mass can turn into energy!
R. And the sun is just a continuous hydrogen bomb.
M. You’ve been looking things up!
R. But we still don’t know what energy IS, do we?
M. Nope. Let’s have a marmalade toastie.
R. And a mug of tea?
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