actual substance.
And even more basically, where did it come from? We know how much potential energy is contained in a gallon of gasoline residing within an oxygen atmosphere, and how much energy is liberated when detonating a 100-megaton fu sion bomb. Here’s a question for you: How much energy do you suppose there is in the entire universe?
Zero .
In order for the universe to have popped into existence in the first place, there needs to have been as much “negative” energy (whatever that is) as there is “positive” energy in any universe, which in ours may manifest as gravity. While mind-bending, this kinda makes intuitive sense, since the entire universe spontaneously sprang into existence 13.8 billion years ago at a size far tinier than the smallest current elementary particle. This makes the “energy” we all use, and ultimately life itself, sort of a “free lunch” deal to those inside our universe. So even though we can only use it once, and it won’t last forever, we all have a pretty good deal .
The Bottom Line: We know what energy does, but not what it is. But what it does is just about everything .
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