Mechanical Equivalent of Heat.
58. We have thus come to the conclusion that when any heavy body, say a kilogramme weight, strikes the ground, the visible energy of the kilogramme is changed into heat; and now, having established the fact of a relationship between these two forms of energy, our next point is to ascertain according to what law the heating effect depends upon the height of fall. Let us, for instance, suppose that a kilogramme of water is allowed to drop from the height of 848 metres, and that we have the means of confining to its own. particles and retaining there the heating effect produced. Now, we may suppose that its descent is accomplished in two stages; that, first of all, it falls upon a platform from the height of 424 metres, and gets heated in consequence, and that then the heated mass is allowed to fall other 424 metres. It is clear that the water will now be doubly heated; or, in other words, the heating effect in such a case will be proportional to the height through which the body falls—that is to say, it will be proportional to the actual energy which the body possesses before the blow has changed this into heat. In fact, just as the actual energy represented by a fall from a height is proportional to the height, so is the heating effect, or molecular energy, into which the actual energy is changed proportional to the height also. Having established this point, we now wish to know through
