motion. To hat, then, is it due? We reply—to the poisition which the kilogramme occupies at the top of the house. For just as a body in motion is a very different thing (as regards energy) from a body at rest, so is a body at the top of a house a very different thing from a body at the bottom.
To illustrate this, we may suppose that two men of equal activity and strength are fighting together, each having his pile of stones with which he is about to belabour his adversary. One man, however, has secured for himself and his pile an elevated position on the top of a house, while his enemy has to remain content with a position at the bottom. Now, under these circumstances, you can at once tell which of the two will gain the day—evidently the man on the top of the house, and yet not on account of his own superior energy, but rather on account of the energy which he derives from the elevated position of his pile of stones. We thus see that there is a kind of energy derived from position, as well as a kind derived from velocity, and we shall, in future, call the former energy of position, and the latter energy of motion.
A Head of Water.
35. In order to vary our illustration, let us suppose there are two mills, one with a large pond of water near it and at a high level, while the other has also a pond, but at a lower level than itself We need hardly ask