Cosmology Old and New

Author(s): G R Jain
Publisher: Bharatiya Gyanpith

Page 84

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COSMOLOGY: OLD AND NEW
tible” Dr. J. W. Mellor writes “Whenever it has been possible to make accurate measurements, it has been found that when any quantity of one form of energy is made to disappear, an equivalent quantity of another form, or forms of energy appears. "l23
L.A. Colding said :
“Energy is imperishable and immortal and therefore, wherever and whenever energy seems to vanish in performing certain mechanical or other work, it merely undergoes transformation and re-appears in a new form but the total quantity of energy still abides."126 The italicized words again mean the upada, vyaya, dhrouvya in the pudgala dravya.
In the brilliant writings of the French physicist Sadi Carnot (died 1832) the following words occur:
“True enough, (energy) may change its form or produce sometimes one kind of motion and sometimes another, but it is never annihilated." It means permanence through change.
What has been said about energy is equally true about matter. A few years after Lord Mahavira, Democritus, the great Greek philosopher also taught -ex nihilo nihil fit, et in nihilum nihil potest reverti---nothing can ever become something, nor can something become nothing.
In the nineteenth Century Herbert Spencer announced that the annihilation of matter is unthinkable for the same reason that the creation of matter is unthinkable, the reason, namely, that nothing cannot be an object of thought.”
The latest work of the great chemist Dr. J.W. Mellor contains the following statements :
“In all changes of a corporeal nature, the total quantity of matter remains the same, being neither created nor destroyed (Anadinidhana). Superficial observatior might lead to the belief that a growing tree, the evaporation of water, and the burning of a candle prove the creation and destruction of matter but a careful study of these and innumerable other phenomenae, has shown that the apparent destruction of matter is an illusion... The law of persistence of weight or the so-called law of indestructibility of matter means that... substance persists while matter changes its form."127
125. Inorganic & Theoretical Chemistry, by J. W. Mellor, Vol. 1, p. 691. 126. Thesis on Energy, by L.A. Colding, Copenhagen, 1843. 127. Inorganic & Theoretical Chemistry, Vol. I, p. 101-2.