Is potential energy ontologically real?
If so, where does it exist, since it is only potential, and not actual? Does that point to the reality of a non-physical realm of potentiality?
If potential energy isn't ontologically real, how does kinetic energy ever happen, since things must have potential energy first in order to later have kinetic energy?
Comments
only if you have faith.
I feel like I'm not fully qualified to answer that but as someone who's studied physics at University-level I'll try to do my best and answer the question. Potential energy vs. kinetic energy is a model which describes reality. It's a useful way of making fairly accurate predictions.
Potential energy cannot be real energy stored in the object in question, otherwise the object's mass would increase with its potential energy as per Einstein's E=mc^2. And that would make no sense since the object's mass would be a function of what point of space we are comparing it to. Each object would have all masses and none of them, a clearly impossible scenario and one which would also make everything we see around us impossible. Kinetic energy on the other hand *is* stored in the object in question, objects traveling at a speed have an increased mass by just as much as predicted by E=mc^2.
Potential energy is just a useful model with which you can make predictions, it does not point to any non-physical realities.
i feel like you pulled a card trick by substituting the word exist for real
maybe it exists and you just don't see it
i think for something to potentially exist (to "be real") it has to be contained somehwere
you know, contained in something like a mind or a source of energy
but suppose the actual energy doesn't exist, then the potential doesn't exist either
wherever the actual is, there is also the potential
a lot of people can't understand how anything exists if it isn't seen by them
they assume it isn't real, that's because they can't even think beyond the actual
or, very significantly, beyond what THEY SUPPOSE the actual is
people like that are very stupid and locked in an early childhood stage of development.
This is backwards.
As Aristotle said in formulating the distinction between potential and actual it is reality itself that is both potential and actual.
Page 196 Aristotle for Everybody by Mortimer Adler
"That which is purely or completely potential cannot exist. Nothing exists that is not actual in some respects, while being potential in other respects."
basic physics - a mass suspended from a height has a potential to create energy when its released.
That seems real enough to me - physical mechanics and metaphysics and ontology - i think you are mixing up your subjects.
Potential energy is real, it just hasn't been turned into kinetic energy yet. Problem solved.
Just trust me and read my poem. There is an everything you want.
Uniontera poem is to ferrari what big bang theory is to porsche.
Existence is the time expressed by light itself. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AN1jTwHUC7E
1. Arrow A is the laser work. (Same time work)
2. Arrow B is the reason of gravity. (also, Higgs boson individually / Different time work)
3. The rose line is the beginning light. (result from Bible)
4. The existence of different time. (result from relativity of light)
5. 2 dimension is not a space. (result from 2-axis, math)
6. Universe came from nothing. (result from No.5 / cf. Playing with bubbles)
6-1. A barrier[posititon] exist between the inner and outer bubbles. But universe do not have that barrier. (Cause of Inertia / Reason of Sun / Position of Antimatter / cf. Expansion)
6-2. Nothing is not a no existence. No existence is a zero dimension. There is two zero dimension. One has a position. The other doesn't have a position. These different positions were connected by something. That "something" is not a what but a way. (Cause of Light)
7. Progress / Event / Probability is a time. (This is my trinity.)
8. Wave-particle duality of light, creation & evolution, uncertainty principle, etc. (result from No.7)
9. Coalescing of different time. (Cause of Rotation & Spin / Equator has plenty of time.)
10. Your so-called black hole is a wholly condensed time. (cf. Kerr spacetime)
11. The reason of "your so-called magnetic field". (result from step3 and 4)
11-1. The reason of "your so-called dark matter". (result from step3 to 4 / Energy-Mass duality / cf. Dark energy "step4 to 3")
12. The reason of "your so-called electric field". (result from the crack of time / Same time's crack is a different time's coalescing. / Cause of Static electricity)
13. Your so-called "space" is a crack of time. (result from No.12 / Cause of Lightning)
14. Boundary is a crack of space. (result from No.13 / Same space's crack is a different time's contact. / Cause of Superfluid / cf. Fractal)
15. Boundary is nothing. Your so-called hole is a boundary itself. Also, nothing is K=0 temperature. (result from No.14 / cf. Calabi-Yau, Hilbert space)
16. This is a wall of your so-called fire. (result from No.15) - copyright â uniontera
Our nonsense has come from one time. Uniontera is a key.
English is not my first language, sorry!
If it is difficult to understand, just remember & enjoy "Hand touching everything is a time". This is the only one result of uniontera.
On to a Log... is that like study of trees?
No.
"Potential" never describes something that already exists.
how can you mention philosophy and real in the same sentence
I stink, therefore I am