The Waffle Iron

Conservation of Energy

If there's any scientific law that has made most sense to me, it has to be the Law of Conservation of Energy. Besides being the basis of my favourite set of Physics problems, it also seems to me like a fact that can be universally applied. Although we have moved on to instances where Classical Physics is often defied, and more complicated laws have been introduced to explain even more complex phenomena, I still associate this law with a wider range of my ideas and understanding. In its simplicity lies its allure, so I've developed this near-compulsive habit to THINK on the same lines.

For example, I have this inclination to try and guess how energy is skipping through various forms. But I often reach this point where I don't know where the energy's going. I run water into the kitchen sink, it's falling to convert its kinetic energy into potential and sound energy. The potential energy, I guess will now shake the sink up a bit. I can hear the sound, so the sound energy vibrates my ear-drum. I dont know how things work after this, so I'm stuck here. I stop playing the guess-game and move on another physical 'occurence' now.

Sometimes, the law can be applied to meta-physical entities. One of my MOST solid beliefs, of Karma, sort of draws from it. And although I can think of anomalies in that association, I also know that those can be smoothed out by clever dissection. What goes around, comes around. But, if you thought of yourself as a 'system', and goodness & badness as forms of complementary energy; if you spread 'goodness' around you, you'd be filled with 'badness' until all that good was returned to you. But maybe my assumption of good and bad as complementary forms is flawed... maybe some systems are solely good, and others sole-ly bad. However, THAT theory is no good either. So, I've finally evolved this theory (which is open to criticism :P), that it is in fact the UNIVERSE which is the 'system', and we the 'particles'. [Which btw, reminds me of what Benjamin Franklin once wrote: "I imagine it great vanity in me to suppose that the Supremely Perfect does in the least regard such an inconsiderable nothing as man" - that's how tiny and inconsequential we really are! **Sigh**] So maybe the universe is just this neutral system, where there is as much good as there is bad. They say the world gets more and more wicked every day, so where's all the good going to? Maybe it's being sucked into some inchoate galaxy.

I sometimes wonder, if we combined everything in the universe, and melted it together, what colour would it be? Being led by the conventional theory of 'white light'; I always come up with 'white'! So we're all better off being a non-homogenous system. Else, we'd probably be white and neutral. If there was a theory that suggested a universal 'form' as well, we'd know exactly what our combined molten mass will look like. :P

However, we all know, that white is a conventional representation of 'good' and black of 'bad'. So is our all-encompassing white a grim reminder of the fact that 'good' can be regular and boring? Then we all NEED the shades of grey [and all other 'secondary' and err.. 'primary'(?) colours].

The same theme goes for 'ideas'. I'm now taking this stance that ALL ideas borrow from one or more sources. A lot of instances have led me to believe so. The moment I start celebrating someone's novel idea; I start upon the realisation that it wasn't SO original in the first place...

I used to be a TOTAL fan of Rushdie's, and would be immersed in wonderment, at his smarting style and intelligent, but subtle literary allusions; until I read James Joyce. Of course each author must have his/her influences, and everyone borrows style. And it definitely does not, in any way, diminish awe of the influenced writer's ability to deliver BEYOND just the 'borrowed style'. But it certainly is a slight let-down to have 'Grimus' be a heavy reminder of 'Ulysses'. I don't know if Joyce borrowed too. :-|

So I once tried to trace the earliest invention. I'd assumed that the earliest 'innovation' that revolutionised humanity was the wheel. But a quick check on the internet yielded pottery as the first human invention. I guess I'd crossed that out because pottery is done on the wheel... well, maybe they intended it to be more like clay-modelling?

Anyway, so there I was wondering HOW anyone would've thought of the working of a wheel. I must admit that my mental faculty proved to be quite limited in this case (atleast). So I exclaimed to a friend, "How do you think our ancestors thought of making a wheel?!". He didn't skip a beat, "Must've seen a round stone rolling down a slope". Which left me in utter disappointment of my own thinking abilities. :-|

So it finally dawned on me, that there is NO 'original' idea. We all draw from the universe and give back to it. The law of conservation of energy.

posted by Cos Θ @ 2:30 PM