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Pengo
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Pardon me if this is the wrong section for this question, but "energy" seemed like a topic that could fit in almost any category on this site.
Either way, I'm sure many people on here have seen this quote by Feynman:
Is Feynman correct about this? Because the way Feynman puts this, it makes it sound as if energy - while having tremendous use as an abstract concept, in formulas that can can make very useful predictions, etc - is fundamentally mysterious.
Either way, I'm sure many people on here have seen this quote by Feynman:
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. It is not that way. However, there are formulas for calculating some numerical quantity and when we add it together it gives “28″—always the same number. It is an abstract thing in that it does not tell us the mechanisms or the reasons for the various formulas.
Is Feynman correct about this? Because the way Feynman puts this, it makes it sound as if energy - while having tremendous use as an abstract concept, in formulas that can can make very useful predictions, etc - is fundamentally mysterious.