Special Presentation:

In October, we are having a special speaker, Dr. Don Shockey, who will be addressing the “Search for Noah’s Ark”.  Meeting location will be Faith Bible Church,   9600 Central Ave. (at Moon St), SE, Albuquerque, NM. (Parking on South side of building off of Moon St. SE corner).  Tuesday evening October 19th, 7:00 PM to 9:00 PM

 Don Shockey has been an Ark researcher since 1984. He was instrumental in the first and only “ark-a-thon” in June 1986, and authored the book, The Painful Mountain, featuring the  eyewitness Ed Davis. He also worked with the Satellite Remote Sensing expert George Stephen III. Dr. Don Shockey, who received his doctorate from Pacific University, also received a degree in Anthropology at the University of New Mexico. He participated in a number of archaeological excavations including the 1955 Lucy Site excavation of Sandia Man, “pit-house” dwellings in northern New Mexico, the Stone Age Mexican Tarahumara Indians, a Roman amphitheater in Albania, Qumran in Israel, the temple mount in Jerusalem and a mastodon site. Shockey was also the founder of the Governor Bent Museum in Taos, New Mexico, and is  currently serving as archaeological consultant for White Horse Exploration Inc , a company which is based in Pennsylvania. 

Question for the Month: 

What is energy?  Another simplistic question, but something that is really complex.  

Answer:  Part 1.  A widely used definition in Physics classes of the term energy is the capacity to do work. While this may seem reasonably correct, a little consideration of what this could mean shows differently. A moving particle (object) could collide with a spring in such a manner as to compress the spring, doing work in the process. What quantity are we to associate with this situation that deserves the name “energy.” The particle, of mass m, has momentum, but we know momentum (mv) is not the same as kinetic energy (K.E. = 1/2  mv2). What part of the definition ability to do work tells us that momentum is not kinetic energy? And, if a particle of mass m is raised through the height h (by any path), then the amount of work (mgh) has to be done on the particle, and the particle can do an equal amount of work in returning to its original position. This capacity to do work is called potential energy.  This potential energy can converted into kinetic energy if the object with PE is now in motion. Here we have a clear example where capacity to do work is interpreted to mean something other than energy. It refers to only a form of energy, K.E. or P.E., and not to (total) energy content of matter (mass –inertia- of stuff). Thus such a definition should be avoided. All we really know about energy is that it has dimensions of mass*(speed)2, and that the total energy of a closed system is constant (fixed) in time. A change in one form of energy in one part of a system must be compensated for in another part of the system such that the total remains constant (Conservation of Mass-Energy Law). This means that if there is a decrease in the amount of one form of energy there must be a compensating increase, by the exact same amount, in another form of energy. Obvious from this description is that the total amount can be any arbitrary number since only changes to the total are observable. Therefore energy is meaningful only as a simple bookkeeping device – the books must balance! This property is known as the principle of energy conservation also known as the first law of thermodynamics. 

 Part 2. It is important to realize that in physics today, we have no knowledge of what energy is. We do not have a picture that energy comes in little blobs of a definite amount as was thought many years ago that energy was something like a liquid that “flowed” from one place to another (i.e. heat energy). It is not that way. However, there are physics formulas for calculating the transfer of energy from one form to another and are able to predict motion of objects. We can determine mechanical energy, electrical energy, chemical energy, potential energy and kinetic energy.  It is an abstract thing in that the equations in themselves do not tell us the mechanism (How?) or the reasons (Why?) for the various formulas.  Pure Energy is a difficult concept to understand, because it is not a concrete object that you can see or touch. To try to understand what energy is, you must first understand what it does. That is, although energy isn’t visible you can detect evidence of energy.  Work (fd) is involved whenever anything moves a distance, and energy is needed to do work. Therefore, energy is defined as the ability to do work.  Much like mass or volume, energy is a property of an object. It’s just that energy is more abstract than some other properties. Although energy itself isn’t visible, you can detect evidence of energy.  Movement, sound, heat, and light provide evidence that energy is present and being used. Sound is produced when we strike something. But does sound do work? Yes, sound can move things. Sound waves move the tiny bones in your ear and shake windows when a loud truck passes by. Sound waves are also evident in the vibrations from playing a radio. Our body is working even when it appears to be still. Breathing, blinking, and digesting food all require energy. For us to do these activities, our bodies burn the energy in food. We know this is happening because we feel warm (burning generates thermal energy [heat]). Therefore, heat is evidence that energy is being used. If the energy is the ability to do work, how does thermal energy fit into this definition? Thermal energy can melt an ice cube or make water boil. Therefore, the definition of  energy can be amended to energy is the ability to do work or to organize or change matter.  Light is another observable form of energy. Light can change things. When light shines on your arm it makes it feel warm. When light shines on a green plant, the plant can make food. Light energy is a form of electromagnetic radiation that is propagated through space by a wave.  The wave contains energy and therefore has the capacity to do work when the wave energy is converted into making something happen.  We sometimes think of electromagnetic wave radiation as pure energy; it travels at the speed of light and has zero mass (property of inertia of matter, or stuff). Now, the next thing to consider is the Second Law of Thermodynamics, which is the loss of energy available to do work in any process over time.  Every time we try to do work, there is always a loss that is “accounted” in the accounting bookwork, if you will, of the concept of entropy.  How is this energy lost?  This is another slippery question that has no good answers.  (Refer to  various analyses of Entropy and Reliability Theory;  very lengthy papers). When we consider what time is, what energy is, what gravity is, and what entropy is, we get the feeling that as physicists or scientists we have the answer to all the problems of life and then discover that the more we study God’s Universe, even though it has order and design, with simplicity evident, yet when we get down to the “brass tacks” of the basic building blocks to this simplicity are very complex and inscrutable indeed! For an example: Consider the simplicity of all the elements that make up our physical world.  It is a system that consists of protons neutron and electrons, but each chemical element only differs in essence from another element by only the number of protons in the nucleus of the atom. Viva la deference. Somehow it is the arrangement of electrons that determines physical and chemical properties for the most part (yes, the neutrons can determine things like isotopes and radioactivity, etc).  The most precise answer to the question What is energy? is Nobody knows!

 (Questions will be posted in the beginning of the month or after the monthly General meeting and answers will be posted just before or after the Monthly Meeting date.)

Be sure and check out our Book Reviews and Article Critiques under the “Resources” category!  Feel free to use our archive resources listed above.

Our Creation Friends

All About Archaeology

Answers in Genesis

Creation Ministries International (CMI)

Creation Science

Creation Wiki

Discover Creation

Discovery Institute

His Place Community Church

Intelligent Design Network, NM

Kent Powderly Books

Kids 4 Truth

Omniology.com

Rocky Mountain Creation Fellowship

The Ark Builders

The Creation Research Society

The Institute for Creation Research