what part friction really plays, we cannot prove the conservation of energy. We see clearly enough that energy cannot be created, but we are not equally sure that it cannot be destroyed; indeed, we may say we have apparent grounds for believing that it is destroyed—that is our present position. Now, if the theory of the conservation of energy be true—that is to say, if energy is in any sense indestructible—friction will prove itself to be, not the destroyer of energy, but merely the converter of it into some less apparent and perhaps less useful form.
47. We must, therefore, prepare ourselves to study what friction really does, and also to recognize energy in a form remote from that possessed by a body in visible motion, or by a head of water. To friction we may add percussion, as a process by which energy is apparently destroyed; and as we have (Art. 39) considered the case of a kilogramme shot vertically upwards, demonstrating that it will ultimately reach the ground with an energy equal to that with which it was shot upwards, we may pursue the experiment one step further, and ask what becomes of its energy after it has struck the ground and come to rest? We may vary the question by asking what becomes of the energy of the smith's blow after his hammer has struck the anvil, or what of the energy of the cannon ball after it has struck the target, or what of that of the railway train after it has been stopped by friction at the break-wheel? All these
