On Fri, 22 Oct 2010 21:58:08 -0400, "Robert Green"
wrote:



Things to ponder:

If energy is neither created nor destroyed, then where did the energy from
the Big Bang come from?

You are assuming it did occur and that there was nothing previously
existing, energy-wise.

Why is the way the universe is expanding not quite matching up with the
theories, aka Dark Matter, Darth Vader's second cousin on his father's side.

You are assuming those theories are sound
Why doesn't a light bulb last forever? Are there processes other than the
generation of light absorbing energy?

A light bulb doesn't last forever because the matter in the filament
is slowly evaporated off, or the filament eventually fatigues and
breaks. Nothing to do with making or destroying energy, and the energy
just makes different wavelengths of light (heat).

Could the energy entering it be expended in not just heat but in physical
changes to the components?

No. The energy of heat can speed up a reaction, but it cannot cause
one, in that the energy is used to change something to something else
without adding something more. Now fission might bend the rules.

Physicists have already created matter from energy so the rules get very
fuzzy the more theoretical you get:

http://van.physics.illinois.edu/qa/listing.php?id=1363

Why do things yellow and turn brittle under very bright light? Could that
energy be converted not just into heat but into chemical changes of the
material it strikes?

How do plants create biomass from sunlight?

That is energy storage

Don't CFLs create RFI which will pass right through the box?

Depends what the box is made of. A metalic box acts as a faraday cage.

What would happen if you lowered (inside a waterproof container, for all you
wiseguys!) a tungsten bulb and a CFL of equal wattage into two calorimeters?
Would they both raise the temperature of the water an equal amount? All
interesting questions - for a theoretical physics group.

As you point out, if I came to AHR to read about angelic pin dancing it
would have been a far more entertaining discussion, but as it was written is
was wrong. At least if you believe in the common usage of the words "put
out, exactly, heat and light" He meant "eventually" - a word that has a
pretty clear meaning which isn't exactly "exactly." (-"