Where Does Energy Come From? | Martin Archer

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Published Feb 27, 2014

This week on #AskHeadSqueeze Thursdays, Martin Archer answers a question from CuttlefishPi on our Head Squeezers Google+ community. Where does Energy Come From? Martin reckons this is really three questions - let's hope he's got the energy to tackle them all.

00:46 Where did the idea of Energy come from?
The concept of energy, and its name, probably comes from Aristotle and the ancient Greeks and they're word energeia. Gottfried Leibniz came up with something like the modern concept of energy with his vis viva or living force in the 1670s and 80s. But the idea of energy didn't really catch on until the 19th century with the advent of thermodynamics and reformulating of Newton's laws of mechanics.
01:32 What is the energy in the Universe?
There are loads of different types, but they can generally be lumped into two categories. Kinetic energy is all about motion, and even heat is included in this broad group. The other category is potential energy, which you can think of as stored energy. One of the amazing realisations of the 20th Century was that matter itself is simply highly condensed energy - energy that can be released, as in a nuclear bomb. But energy can't be created or destroyed, it can only change form.
03:59 Where does energy come from?
At heart, energy is an abstract concept. But the concept exists because of time symmetry. In 1915 German Mathematician and Theoretical Physicist Emmy Noether proved that if the laws of Nature have a symmetry then there must be a physical quantity which is conserved. She showed that energy is a consequence of the fundamental time symmetry of Nature, without this symmetry energy would not exist and nothing would exist.
Who's Emmy Noether?

More on the Higgs Boson and symmetry:
More on what ""matters"" around us (geddit?)
Essentially the way the Universe is, is intimately tied to the symmetries of Nature - amazing.
If you want a mystery of the universe solved, or one of your questions answered, drop a comment below, or join our G+ Community 'Head Squeezers'.

So the symmetry of the universe gives us energy, but you don't need to go that far to find some. Jon Chase powers an LEDÖ with a lemon.

And James May shows you how light bulbs work.

Category: Entertainment

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