Reaction (physics)

“ Similarly, as the energy principle is violated when we don't consider the electromagnetic energy, and fulfilled when we introduce this type of energy, the reaction principle is violated if we only consider the mechanical momentum, and is satisfied on the other hand, as soon as we have considered the electromagnetic momentum. ”

“ Mathematical Theory of Attractive Forces," based on the assumption " that all substances consist of minute spherical atoms of different but constant magnitudes, and of the same intrinsic inertia; and that the dynamical relations and movements of different substances, and of their constituent atoms, are determined by the pressures of the aether against the surfaces of the atoms, together with the reaction of the atoms against such pressure by reason of the constancy of their form and magnitudes. ”

“ While the energy from the very outset represented a universal physical expression, the momentum was so far a special mechanical expression, the reaction principle a special mechanical theorem, and therefore the extension recognized as necessary was perceived as a revolution of principle, by which the previous relatively simple and uniform concept of momentum becomes considerably more complicated in nature. ”

“ We have now to consider the effect of the forces acting on the particles. These may be divided into two categories; we have first, the extraneous forces exerted on the various particles from without, and, secondly, the mutual or internal forces between the various pairs of particles. It is assumed that these latter are subject to the law of equality of action and reaction. If the equations of motion of each particle be formed separately, each such internal force will appear twice over, with opposite signs for its components, viz. ”

“ We have learned that force is one, indestructible and uncreatable, and that all its manifestations are mutually convertible one into another. Either of the great modes of force may be active in affecting chemical composition; may cause chemical union or chemical separation; may be the motive of either analysis or synthesis. Now, in the direction here suggested, the main work of physics is being done. The chief object of the physicist to-day is to determine quantitatively the relations connecting all the different varieties of energy. Under what circumstances, and how, are forces transformed? ”

“ It is an universal law of nature that action and reaction are equal and opposite. Hence when any agent acts to set a body in motion, or to modify its motion in any way, the body reacts on the agent, and this force has been called the Kinetic reaction. ”

“ There is much that might indicate that, on the whole, it is impossible to obtain a consistent picture of atomic processes in space and time with the help of the motions of the nuclei and the electrons and the variations in the state of the ether, and with the application of such fundamental conceptions of physics as mass, electric charge and energy. ”

“ So in the transition from the mechanics of the worlds to those of the smaller amounts of matter in each single world, just so also in that from the mechanics of the mass to that of the molecule—the motion which we examine particularly in physics, so-called, heat, light, electricity, magnetism, just in the same way also the transition from the physics of the molecule to the physics of the chemical atom is completed by a differentiating leap, and it is just the same with the transition from ordinary chemical action to the chemistry of albumen which we call life. ”

“ I may even go further, and affirm that it is impossible to rationally conceive radiation producing any mechanical effects without mechanical reaction. If heat be motion, and actual motion of actual matter, mechanical force must be exerted to produce it, and a body which is warmer on one side than the other, i.e., which is exerting more outward motion-producing force on one side than on the other, must be subject to proportionally unequal reaction, and, therefore, if free to move, must retreat in a direction contrary to that of its greater activity. ”

“ To give effect to such a supposition, and to reconcile it with the facts of chemistry and of physics, it is necessary to suppose that the atoms of matter are merely minute vortices or whirlwinds set up in an ethereal medium, which in itself, and when at rest, does not possess any of the properties of matter. ”

“ If the law of action of these several forces is the same in the case of moving matter as in the case of moving electricity, then their motions also will be the same. The moving forces are called the action and the opposing forces are called the reaction, and Newton’s third law of motion says: Action is equal to the opposing reaction. ”

“ We are thus led to apply to the medium, ether, in consideration of the fundamental notions of force and mass, which they imply, the equations of material dynamics, deduced from principles founded on observations of matter only, always taken in mass and without an appreciable amount of radiation. ”

“ Therefore, the energy principle generally requires that the change of total energy contained in a certain space is like a surface integral, namely, the algebraic sum of the entire incoming energy through the surface of that space. The flux can be submitted by radiation, such as the Poynting vector, by conduction as with pressure or with pushes and with heat conduction, and by convection as with the admission of ponderable atoms or electrons through the considered surface. ”

“ After a brief discussion of kinematics and dynamics, mass physics is further divided into work and energy, attraction and potential, properties of matter, energy of mass vibration, sound. Then physics of the ether has energy of ether vibration, radiant energy, energy of ether stress, electrostatics, energy of ether vortices, magnetism, energy of ether flow, electro-kinetics, electro-magnetic character of radiation. ”

“ As to the energy we know already a number of different forms: the kinetic energy, gravitation, the elastic deformation energy, heat, chemical energy, and it is therefore not a principally new feature when to these different forms, the electromagnetic energy is attached as another form. Conversely, until now only a single form was known as momentum: mechanical momentum. ”

“ And thus, whether we contemplate the infinitely small or the infinitely grand, in every case comes back upon us the wide induction, that the action of matter in atom, in molecule, or in mass, is ever at a distance! Of actual contact there is probably no instance afforded in nature, excepting in the intimate substance of the ultimate atom. ”

“ The most plausible suggestion yet made by this school is that a single omnipresent fluid aether fills the universe; that by various motions of the nature of eddies, the qualities of cohesion, elasticity, hardness, weight, mass or other universal properties of matter are given to small portions of the fluid which constitute the chemical atoms; that these, by modifications in their combination, form, and motion, produce all the accidental phenomena of gross matter ; that the primary fluid by other motions, transmits light, radiant heat, magnetism, and gravitation ”

“ We know that those atoms obey certain conditions which appear to be dependent upon the influences of motion, gravitation, heat, light, electricity, and chemical force. These powers are only known to us by their effects; we only detect their action by their operations upon matter; and although we regard the several phenomena which we have discovered, as the manifestations of different principles, it is possible they may be but modifications of some one universal power, of which these are but a few of its modes of action. ”

“ When the atoms acquire energy in electron collisions, the situation is apparently easier to understand, since in this case the colliding electrons give their kinetic energy to definite atoms, namely, those which they strike. ”

“ And the main problem of physical science is, not to calculate the play of atomic motions, under the sway of their constant central forces, but to trace the differentiation and transformation of material forms as determined by the differentiation and transformation of the formative energy of the universe. In this connection, observation and experiment have brought to light a number of the most significant facts, to one of which I may be permitted to draw attention before the conclusion of this paper. Force, or, more correctly speaking, energy, is not only indestructible, like mass ”

“ So that motion is essential to matter, is equally indestructible, and is directly proportional to its mass. He held that light, heat, sound, and the excitations of smell and taste, are all the results of molecular motion or vibration, as are also the agencies of electricity, magnetism, and gravitation. ”

“ The inherent measure of force possessed by each and every atom is its kinetic energy, and this energy is the correlative and antecedent of all the modes of force which characterize the various phenomena of the visible universe. The condition in which matter presents itself to our senses depends upon the degree in which these several forces are made manifest. All the phenomena of Nature consist in transformations of energy only, the working force of the universe being previously invested in the kinetic energy of its atoms. ”

“ Electrical action, chemical power, crystalline aggregation, the expansive force of heat, and many other known agencies, are in constant operation to prevent it. It must, however, be remembered, that each and every atom constituting a mass may be so suspended between the balanced forces, that it may be regarded as relatively at rest.
Theory imagines Motion as producing Force—a body is moved, and its mere mechanical change of place is regarded as generating heat; and hence the refinements of modern science have advanced to the conclusion that motion and heat are convertible. ”

“ About half of the volume is devoted to the kinetics of a particle, and the remainder is given to the study of the kinetics of a rigid body and a brief discussion of the fundamental principles of the kinetics of a system. In the discussion of the motion of a particle (impact, rectilinear motion) such fundamental ideas as momentum, impulse, kinetic energy, force, work, potential energy, and power are gradually introduced and illustrated in an elementary way. ”

“ Suppose now that it receives an impulse, it will begin to move with a velocity inversely proportional to its mass, on the one hand, and directly proportional to the strength of the impulse, on the other, and will possess kinetic energy, in virtue of which it will not only continue to move for ever if unimpeded, but if it impinges on another such particle, it will impart more or less of its motion, to the latter. Let it be conceived that the particle acquires a tendency to move, and that nevertheless it does not move. ”

“ It is now believed, and to a large extent demonstrated, that the force, apparently lost, has been transformed into heat, electricity, or some other kind of molecular motion, of which the change of shape is only the outward sign. The establishment on a firm foundation of theory and experiment of the so-called conservation of energy, the child of the correlation of physical forces, is one of the first fruits of molecular mechanics. ”

“ From the standpoint of the principle of relativity, one of the most interesting quantities in mechanics is the so-called kinetic energy, which is the increase in energy attributed to a body when it is set in motion with respect to an arbitrarily chosen point of rest. ”

“ If they are material bodies—and heat, for example, is the cause of motion—must not the calorific matter move itself—or if it be not self-moving, by what is it moved? If heat is material, and the primary cause of motion, then matter must have an innate power of moving; it can convert itself into active force, or be at once a cause and an effect, which can scarcely be regarded as a logical deduction.
We move a particle of matter, and heat is manifested; the force being continued, light, electricity, and chemical action result ”

“ The objective correlatives of the different classes of sensible experiences are found to be different forms which this Energy assumes—the kinetic energy of a mass in motion, the radiant energy of Light, the energy of Heat, the potential energy of chemical separation, etc.—all these have now at length been shown to be forms of one real thing capable under appropriate conditions of being transmuted into each other and of which not only the inter-transmutability but the equivalent values can be calculated and have been found by experiment to be fixed and definite. ”

“ In so doing, we must have regard to the fact that each particle must drop into the place where it can go most easily, or where no easier place offers. In more technical language, each particle is free to take up, and does take up, its position of least potential energy relative to those already deposited; in other words, for each particle motion is induced until the energy of the system is so distributed that no tendency or resultant force remains to move it more. ”

“ This is the fundamental conception (not hypothesis) of the theory.... Now in a system of atoms as above defined, let the centers be of equal mass and at equal distances; there will be no difference of pressure on any one center, no moving force will be developed, and the conditions of equilibrium will be satisfied. ”

“ It is mathematically demonstrable that any arrest, alteration, or extra occurrence of a physical process necessarily implies increase of Energy, and ultimately of mass of Matter in the world.... Any conceivable alteration in the prior order of atoms, centres of force, or elemental activities, reckoned in any terms of Motion, must, in fact, have the effect of increasing the sum total. ”

“ The first kind of energy, that of motion, is called Kinetic energy, and when once understood it appears so fundamental a fact of nature that we can hardly conceive the possibility of resolving it into anything else. The second kind of energy, that depending on position, is called Potential energy, and is due to the action of what we call forces, that is to say, tendencies towards change of relative position. ”