If a stone is thrown up in the air is its motional energy loss proportional to itself?

Question

Would that be an exponential decay?

Answer 1

To answer your question simply and directly; yes. An object's motional energy loss is proportional to itself; it's a result of the forces of gravity acting directly on objects based on their respective masses and distances.

As the stone goes up in the air, it loses kinetic energy due to the pull of gravity -- it decelerates until it stops moving upward, then begins moving downward.

The second you let go of the rock, its acceleration is constant; its kinetic energy decreases as it slows down and then increases again as it falls to earth.

The kinetic energy of the rock turns into potential energy as it gets higher; kinetic energy being equal to one-half the rock's mass times its velocity squared, and potential energy being the rock's mass times the rock's height above ground times the constant acceleration due to gravity.

In a vacuum, all the rock's kinetic and potential energy would add up to the same value at any point in its rise and fall; if you threw it hard enough to give it, say, a hundred kilojoules of kinetic energy, when it reached the top of its trajectory and began to fall down, it would have zero kinetic energy but a hundred kilojoules of potential energy. On earth, it wouldn't work like that; some small amount of energy would be lost due to wind resistance, etc.

Answer 2

Or even more amusing to think about: If subject and object are the same, then can a stone(object) throw you (the subject)? This absurdity makes it obvious that the shape of one's body tells a lot about it's potential to make decisions and follow through on them by focusing one's energy into outward expression. So all humans can do this, but stones can not. A stone and a human are made of the same stuff and all actions of each affect the other, but it should be clear that we are not the same, the difference being the quantity of consciousness we have realized in form which is reflected as our visible shape. You can throw a stone with your intention and focus (will) and it will happen if the energy you can express has stronger force than the object in question. On another scale, if you have completed transformation to oneness - all the energy of you/one internally is expressed outwardly as your form physically - then it is said if you say to the mountain, move, then it will move. Without a body I don't think this would be possible. Betsy