ATOMS, MOLECULES & CELLS
Energy, matter and sound are very important in our life.
Energy - Keep us alive, it is our soul (Aatman) which is a part of Cosmic energy (Brahman)
Matter - Physical form, i.e. life forms, planets and everything we can see and touch.
Sound - Structured the matter into shapes and forms, and put the energy into life forms.
Will be discussing energy and matter in this chapter. For sound, check the chapter - 9.
Atoms - Atoms are the basic unit of the matters. Atoms are the tiniest particles that make the whole world. Not just it, but like everything else too that one can’t even think of. It includes both living and non-living things. Everything is made of atoms. As shown in the second image, atoms consist of Nucleus (outer shell), Protons and Neutron (both inside part). Atoms are particles, and Protons & Neutrons are subatomic particles. Electrons are revolving around the atoms (actually nucleus). Electrons are thought to orbit a nucleus same as planets orbit the sun. (Maybe atoms for the beings living at higher dimensions). Everything in this universe is orbiting something. Electrons around atoms, we around temples or god statues, muslims in kabah, earth around sun, moon around earth, sun around bigger star, all stars orbiting the center of the galaxy.
Why Are They Rotating?
Because the nucleus (Protons are positively charged but Neutrons are zero charged) is positively charged and electrons are negatively charged, so there is a force of attraction between the nucleus and the electron. Now you must be wondering why the electron doesn't fall inside the atom, it's because it's rotating. Rotation creates a force, which directs electrons away from the nucleus.
To understand it better, try this experiment: tie a ball to a string now start rotating while you are holding the string. You will see that the string will take an almost horizontal orientation, even if you pull the string, the ball will stay away from you due to centrifugal force. But not for too long. The ball has to stop, eventually.
The Protons and Neutrons are particles, but the electron is not a particle, it is more of a field of existence. So, eventually, the electron would slow down and collapse into the nucleus. And, in that case, no atoms could exist, atoms die.
This is the reason things rot, we die, everything dies after a time. Nothing is permanent.
Scientists have discovered that there are 118 kinds of atoms which we call elements. You can find them on a chart called the periodic table. Proximately, a human hair is 500,000 times wider than an atom.
In ancient Greece, Democritus, the man that many historians credit for first clearly proposing the idea of an atom it was thought by some that if you were to chop up a piece of matter, an Apple for instance, You could just keep on shopping forever and ever, there was no end to smallness. For reasons not fully agreed upon by historians this concept did not sit well with Democritus. Instead he insisted that at some point you would reach particles so small and so indestructible, They could not be divided any further. He called them Atomos or atoms which means uncuttable
What is an Atom?
What is Atom made of?
Atomic Number Vs. Atomic Mass (Weight)
Atomic Number - Total number of Protons in Atom. Number of Protons are equal as number of Electrons
Atomic Mass (Weight) - Protons + Neutrons
Example of Carbon Atom. The first base and captain atom among all the elements
In a carbon atom, there are 6 protons so the atomic number of carbon is 6.
It also has 6 neutrons, so Atomic mass (weight) of carbon is 6 protons + 6 neutrons = 12.
Molecules - When these tiniest particles want to marry each other and want to be together for some time, they create special bonds. These bonds help them hold them together. This association of atoms through bonds results in the formation of molecules. It includes living and non-living things too.
What is a Molecule?
ENERGY + MATTER
There are two elements, Energy and Matter, also known as different names.
Matter - Body, Atoms, Padartha
Energy - Soul, Lifeforce, Tattwa, Parana, Consciousness, Atman
Everything we see around us is made of matter / padartha (Atoms). Every matter has its energy / tattwa that allows it to move. For example, we are matter / padarth and the thing we call soul is energy / tattwa. This energy/consciousness is everywhere and every individual's energy is just a little part of that universal energy/consciousness. We breathe in this energy/lifeforce/consciousness. Everything in this universe is made of these two elements ie. matter/padartha and energy/tattwa. Our breath is also made of these two. Oxygen is matter and the lifeforce (Prana) that comes along with it is energy. Oxygen is for lungs and Lifeforce (Prana) is for naadis. Similarly, what we eat is also made of matter and energy. Eg. Apple is a matter and its vitamins are energy (tattwa). Similarly, everything is made of matter and energy.
Energy is also known as Atman, meaning, individuals' energy, and this individual energy is a part of Brahman, the universal energy / consciousness. Each living thing - people, animals, plants - have an atman (soul / energy) that forms each thing's eternal essence (Each thing's energy becomes permanent energy according to that thing's shape).
We, as matter, formed by chance in a form or shape, like anything in the universe, Sun, Stars etc. We will live our life and then die and our energy will return in the universal energy / consciousness to be integrated or restructured, by chance, with other matter next time. Dying is a sleep without awakening.
Matters die but not the energy. The energy / soul cannot be killed, it is permanent. If our karma is good, our energy / soul gets free and mixed with universal energy / consciousness. But, if our karma is bad, our energy finds a new matter / body to live in. Matter is just a carrier for energy.
NATURE OF MATTER
Bhagavatam states that matter exists in two conditions:
1. manifest condition
2. unmanifest condition
When matter is transformed to a manifest condition, the universe is created and when the universe is annihilated, matter is transformed back into its unmanifest condition.
Matter can exist in three different states, namely solid, liquid and gas. Matter can change from one state to another under specific physical conditions - i.e. temperature and pressure of the substance.
Entropy: First law of thermodynamics is Internal energy, heat and work done. Second law is entropy. Entropy is a measurement of chaos and disorder. According to the second law of thermodynamics, the entropy of an isolated system always increases (An isolated system is a thermodynamic system that cannot exchange either energy or matter outside the boundaries of the system). Higher (increased) entropy means disordered matter and lower (decreased) entropy means more ordered and arranged matter. Nature has a tendency to take things from order to disorder and randomness of a system. You spend hours cleaning your desk, your basement, your attic, and it seems to spontaneously revert back to disorder, chaos and randomness before your eyes. A random system is one that lacks a regular arrangement and order. This tendency towards randomness and disorder is called entropy.
In the above image, the jumble of ice chips may look more disordered in comparison to the glass of water which looks uniform. But the ice chips place limits on the number of ways the molecules can be arranged So, ice chips are in order and arranged (lower entropy). The water molecules in the glass of water can be arranged in many more ways, they have greater "multiplicity" (disordered) and therefore greater entropy.
One can create order out of disorder, but that requires expenditure of effort or energy and so decreases the amount of energy available. Thus, for matter to be ordered, requires a conscious being! Without a conscious being behind matter, matter's only tendency is to increase disorder (high entropy). This tendency of the universe to expand comes from the conscious being who activates matter by injecting consciousness/energy into it!
THERMODYNAMICS (IN TERM OF OUR UNIVERSE)
Thermodynamics is the study of the relationship of all forms of energy in the universe. It connects everything from the smallest swimming microbes to the largest structures known to man — those so big they exist somewhere out there amongst the black backdrop of dark space. Its first law says that isolated systems have a finite, set amount of energy and energy within that system can never be created nor destroyed, it can only change format. In our case, the isolated system is our universe and energy within our universe can never appear or disappear of its own accord, instead it can only be transferred into different states.
However, it’s the second law of thermodynamics which describes the nature of entropy — the eventual unravelling of everything. It’s often seen as chaos: the universe tends towards chaos. But that’s not a complete understanding of what entropy really is. In a system, entropy is a measure of how evenly distributed the energy within that system is and, according to the second law, entropy must always be increasing overall. We can decrease entropy on small scales (you do this every time you heat up a pot of water, for example) but on the much grander scale of the universe, energy is becoming more evenly distributed and it’s this process that will eventually bring about the death of everything. Not just everyone, but everything.
If you place a hot bowl of soup on the dining table, the soup will eventually cool down to room temperature. The concentrated, ordered heat within the bowl will eventually spread out into a more disordered state where the heat has spread throughout the room. This is an example of entropy. This happens, because of the building blocks of matter that we call atoms. The more heat within the atoms, the faster they move. They then share this energy with their surroundings, transferring it from the soup to the dish to the table, and throughout the rest of the room (just like our sun is doing). And while it is possible for a hot object to spontaneously grow hotter, the chances of this happening are so small that it’s never been observed. This is where the statistical nature of entropy comes into play — higher entropy is the most likely outcome for a system. Higher entropy means higher disorder because disorder has a higher chance of occurring.
Unarranged and disordered states are more likely to occur than ordered and arranged states. Energy is much more likely to be disordered and evenly distributed within a system . Once this energy has been dispersed, the process cannot be reversed (the soup will not once again heat up unless an outside force acts upon it). This is the law that permeates the entire universe. All things with heat and energy are interconnected and this heat and energy will continue to disperse throughout the system that is space.
As entropy in the universe continues to increase, heat will continue to spread until the system has reached maximum equilibrium, meaning that everything will degrade into sole particles. Of all the scenarios for our universe’s death, Heat Death is the most likely to occur given what we can observe. Then everything will cool down. Like hot soup, first it will spread its heat to its surroundings then the soup will cool down. Same will happen with our universe. Everything is heating up, then everything will be destroyed and then it will cool down.
