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14
THE CONSERVATION OF ENERGY.

ceive ourselves entitled to sum up, with perfect propriety and innocence, the amount of work done in drilling a hole through a deal board or through a man.

20. A body such as a rifle ball, moving with very great velocity, has, therefore, energy, and it requires very little consideration to perceive that this energy will be proportional to its weight or mass, for a ball of two ounces moving with the velocity of 1000 feet per second will be the same as two balls of one ounce moving with this velocity, but the energy of two similarly moving ounce balls will manifestly be double that of one, so that the energy is proportional to the weight, if we imagine that, meanwhile, the velocity remains the same.

21. But, on the other hand, the energy is not simply proportional to the velocity, for, if it were, the energy of the rifle stock and of the rifle ball would be the same, inasmuch as the rifle stock would gain as much by its superior mass as it would lose by its inferior velocity. Therefore, the energy of a moving body increases with the velocity more quickly than a simple proportion, so that if the velocity be doubled, the energy is more than doubled. Now, in what manner does the energy increase with the velocity? That is the question we have now to answer, and, in doing so, we must appeal to the familiar facts of everyday observation and experience.

22. In the first place, it is well known to artillerymen, that if a ball have a double velocity, its penetrating power or energy is increased nearly fourfold, so that it