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Introduction to Technocracy: Definitions and Laws

``In physical science... the first step is to define clearly the material system which we make the subject of our statements. This system may be of any degree of complexity. It maybe a simple material particle, a body of finite size, or any number of such bodies, and it may even be extended so as to include the whole material universe.'' -- James Clerk Maxwell, Matter and Motion

DEFINITIONS

Mass

The quantity of matter in a body, or more correctly, the degree of resistance to changes of state exhibited by a body. (Weight, however, is an expression of the force with which the earth attracts the body.)

Motion

Change of position (displacement of a body with reference to another body). The determination of displacement involves two quantities: the length of the path traversed between the given points, and the direction of the path from origin to terminus. (Vector)

Force

That which changes, or tends to change, the state of rest or uniform motion of a body. It is only through such changes that force can be detected or measured.

Energy

The capacity of a body or material system for doing work. Kinetic energy: Possessed by a body in virtue of its motion; summarized in the formula K.E. = ¹/₂mv², where m is the mass of the body and v its velocity. Potential energy: Possessed by a body in virtue of its position or configuration. (The case of water at the top of a fall, of a body suspended above ground, of a taut cord or a coiled spring.)

Work

A force is said to do work when its point of application is displaced in the direction of its application. (Cox) Expressed more generally by James Clerk Maxwell, work is `the transference of energy from one body or material system to another. The system which gives out energy is said to do work on the system which receives it, and the amount of energy given out by the first system is always exactly equal to that received by the second.' Bear in mind that, in practice, allowance must be made for `losses' through friction, air resistance, and heat; these losses, however, added to the total of energy effectively transformed into work, always equal the total energy originally expended.

Power

The quantity of work done by a body or material system in a unit of time; more tersely, a time-rate of doing work. This scientific definition of power must be kept clearly in mind in all discussions bearing upon the operation of physical equipment of any kind: no reference to `power' is correct that does not state a quantitative relationship between the factor of work and the physical dimension of time.

LAWS

Newton's Three Laws of Motion

1. Every body continues in its state of rest or of uniform motion in a straight line, except insofar as it is compelled to change that state by impressed force. (This is Galileo's Principle of Inertia.)
2. Change of motion is proportional to the impressed force, and takes place in the direction of that force. (From this law is derived the method of measuring force, which can be observed only in relation to changes of state in a body.)
3. To every action there is equal and, opposite reaction. (This states that all force is of the nature of a stress, that is, a mutual action between two bodies. Force could not exist, nor would it be necessary, if there were no inertia or resistance to overcome.)

The Two Laws of Thermodynamics

1. The total energy of a body or system of bodies is a quantity which can neither be increased nor diminished by any mutual action of the bodies, though it may be transformed into any one of the forms of which energy is susceptible. (Clerk Maxwell) This is the great Principle of the Conservation of Energy. Attempts to circumvent or violate it come under the head of perpetual motion of the first class.
2. The total energy of a material system (which includes its heat) tends to become uniformly distributed throughout the particles of the system. This process is described as `unidirectional and irreversible,' and from any determinate energy state of the system (provided that no indeterminate external force is introduced) it is possible to calculate 'the next most probable state' of the system. The final state of complete distribution or equipartition of energy is called the maximum entropy of the system. It is this law which in current physical theory is treated as a special case of the theory of probabilities: the state of a material system at any moment is a statistical expression of the combined (and individually indeterminate) states of the particles of which it is composed.