ok, one for the physicists - can you create energy?

[ColJack]

so the moon, spinning around the Earth.... held on by gravity is pulling the sea all over the place... the energy in the sea is immense..... surely that energy is free?

free in what respect?
it costs us nothing yes, but it's the conversion of the kinetic energy of the moon..

ok, explain the landslide thing....

the energy is already stored in the rocks by whatever force put them up there..
to form a mountain range 2 pieces of crust move towards each other, they meet and either both go upwards, or one down, one up.. either way it's then storing the kinetic energy of the moving crust as potential energy in the rocks and mountains..

 

[Trazor]

ok, explain the landslide thing....

All mass has potential energy, provided it is being drawn towards a larger mass.

Place a brick on a table, then remove the table, the brick falls to the floor releasing stored energy.
But it now has less potential energy, as it is nearer the earths centre.

If all the mountains and hills of the world were to suddenly become landslides, then a tremendous amount of energy would be released.
But now the world is flat all over, you have used up all the potential energy available.

It required greater force to create the mountains, than you would release.

 

[ColJack]

my analogy of gravity to magnetism is spot on..

one atom always atracts another..

the more atoms there are the more attraction there is..

larger celestial bodies have more gravitational pull than smaller ones because there are more atoms to attract other atoms..

this is why things with lots of mass fall faster than things with less mass..

 

[imamartian]

ok, explain the landslide thing....

But now the world is flat all over,

eh? flat all over? is that possible? i think not... so you start talking about a convergence to infinity....

 

[Trazor]

this is why things with lots of mass fall faster than things with less mass..

Errrrmmm..... no they don't, they fall at the same speed, ask Galileo.

 

[Trazor]

eh? flat all over? is that possible? i think not... so you start talking about a convergence to infinity....

Obviously I meant the earths surface, which will still be a sphere.

 

[WDIK]

gravity is the attraction of one atom to another...

No it's not.

the dense core of the earth is moving creating a giant magnet that is sucking all of your atoms towards it....

No it's not.

Your analogy of magnetism to gravity is wrong.

quite right Trazor. gravity is very difficult to comprehend, but basically its about mass and density. nothing to do with magnetic effects

 

[conny]

this is why things with lots of mass fall faster than things with less mass..

Errrrmmm..... no they don't, they fall at the same speed, ask Galileo.

If I remember correctly isn't it 32ft per second/per second?

 

[Trazor]

this is why things with lots of mass fall faster than things with less mass..

Errrrmmm..... no they don't, they fall at the same speed, ask Galileo.

If I remember correctly isn't it 32ft per second/per second?

You are correct, the only thing to change this figure would be air resistance, as say with a parachute.

 

[WDIK]

my analogy of gravity to magnetism is spot on..

one atom always atracts another..

the more atoms there are the more attraction there is..

larger celestial bodies have more gravitational pull than smaller ones because there are more atoms to attract other atoms..

this is why things with lots of mass fall faster than things with less mass..

atoms do not attract one another.
the electron valiance of any atom dictates attraction to other elemental atoms.
if the right number of electron are on the outer valiance ring then given the correct catalytic conditions, then a compound will be formed

 

[sooey]

quite right Trazor. gravity is very difficult to comprehend, but basically its about mass and density. nothing to do with magnetic effects

Nothing to do with density niether, just mass.

 

[WDIK]

quite right Trazor. gravity is very difficult to comprehend, but basically its about mass and density. nothing to do with magnetic effects

Nothing to do with density niether, just mass.

density defines mass

 

[sooey]

No it don't.

 

[WDIK]

yes your right

 

[tim west]

of course energy can be created- e n e r g and y, there you go!