What Is Energy at a Microscopic Level?

  • Thread starter Thread starter nil1996
  • Start date Start date
  • Tags Tags
    Energy
AI Thread Summary
Energy is defined as the ability to perform work through force and displacement, but its nature at a microscopic level remains abstract and elusive. The conservation of energy is a fundamental law stating that energy quantity remains constant despite changes in nature. This principle is mathematical rather than descriptive, indicating that energy does not have a concrete form or mechanism. Current physics lacks a definitive understanding of what energy truly is, viewing it instead as a bookkeeping tool for calculations. Ultimately, discussions about energy at the molecular level may not yield meaningful insights, as energy serves primarily as a conceptual framework in physics.
nil1996
Messages
301
Reaction score
7
Hello PF:smile:


Up till now i have learned that something that has the ability to do force*displacement is called energy.But what is energy at a microscopic level ?
 
Physics news on Phys.org
See last paragraph:

Richard Feynman said:
There is a fact, or if you wish, a law governing all natural phenomena that are known to date. There is no known exception to this law – it is exact so far as we know. The law is called the conservation of energy.

It states that there is a certain quantity, which we call “energy,” that does not change in the manifold changes that nature undergoes. That is a most abstract idea, because it is a mathematical principle; it says there is a numerical quantity which does not change when something happens.

It is not a description of a mechanism, or anything concrete; it is a strange fact that when we calculate some number and when we finish watching nature go through her tricks and calculate the number again, it is the same.

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. It is an abstract thing in that it does not tell us the mechanism or the reason for the various formulas.
 
To expand on this, it might be useful to read the entire chapter that the Feynman quote comes from:

http://www.feynmanlectures.info/docroot/I_04.html
 
I don't think it makes sense to talk about energy "at the molecular level". What in the world would the "potential energy of a rock sitting on a cliff" even mean "at the molecular level. Fundamentally, energy is a "bookkeeping" device. Every time we find a situation in which it appears that energy is NOT conserved, we define a new kind of energy to cover the difference!
 
So I know that electrons are fundamental, there's no 'material' that makes them up, it's like talking about a colour itself rather than a car or a flower. Now protons and neutrons and quarks and whatever other stuff is there fundamentally, I want someone to kind of teach me these, I have a lot of questions that books might not give the answer in the way I understand. Thanks

Similar threads

Replies
32
Views
9K
Replies
1
Views
2K
Replies
6
Views
2K
Replies
28
Views
3K
Replies
27
Views
4K
Replies
1
Views
1K
Replies
25
Views
393
Replies
65
Views
9K
Replies
4
Views
6K
Back
Top