First Law of Thermodynamics: History of the Concept of Energy

Where did the first law of thermodynamics come from? Why is energy called energy and what has that to do with heat? Where did the 1/2 in kinetic energy come from? Watch this video to find out the real people behind the science!
My Patreon Page (thanks!):
www.patreon.com/user?u=15291200
The music is from the awesome Kim Nalley of course www.KimNalley.com
The Video of Emilie du Chatelet showing Voltaire the damage of dropping lead balls is from Nova, "Einstein's Big Idea" : • Video

[@hiimspee828]

Really well put together, and engaging. Feels approachable, even to a carpenter such as myself! First video of yours I've found, so got some catch-up to do.

[@Kathy_Loves_Physics]

I am so glad you liked it and that it made sense to you (I was a little concerned with covering so many people and so much time).

[@hiimspee828]

@@Kathy_Loves_Physics your proper use of the video essay format helped a visual person like me, at least, keep hold of the thread. Great stuff!

[@Asolo137]

As a retired high school physics teacher, I felt like I had struck gold finding your KZbin channel. For my entire career, I had taught all these concepts and equations about energy, work, heat, thermodynamics, etc. but always wanted to know more about the history. Thank you so much for filling in the gaps. I, too, love physics and history, and now that I am retired, I have the time to pursue both at my leisure. Your love and passion shine through. Keep up the excellent work.

[@philipslaulia]

me too

[@keybawd4023]

I couldn't agree more. I graduated with a masters with a largely theoretical thesis on free radicals. I know and am fascinated by the story of how our knowledge of the subatomic world developed in the first half of the last century. These videos have brought the whole period to life, science is 'humanised' ! And as a teacher I am sure you will agree she explains things so well.

[@miguelmouta5372]

Indeed an excellent job.

[@Loots1]

I dont know if you guys know this or not but you can learn history in these things called books...

[@TravisTellsTruths]

Excellent. I'm not waiting until retirement. We don't have much time

[@ramonescaba4293]

i'm a mechanical engineer and worked for 25 plus years in a nuclear power plant have substantial training in steam power engineering but it still fascinates me knowing the history and the scientists who started all these, thanks for the video

[@bobbymcdingdong]

Thanks for introducing me to Emilie du Chatelet - what an incredible scientist she was!

[@Kathy_Loves_Physics]

It was so nice that she was famous enough that all of her work (and many letters) were translated into English for me. I really like her too.

[@aniksamiurrahman6365]

Sadly she left out another remarkable woman who finally figured out what it is that's actually constant. This woman is mathematician Frau Noether. Go check her work if you are really interested.

[@aniksamiurrahman6365]

@@Kathy_Loves_Physics But I didn't like that you left out mathematician Emmy Noether. Her contribution about what energy is and what it is that's remaining constant overshadows Einstein and Feynman combined.

[@lawrencedoliveiro9104]

I don’t think Nöther’s theorem would have made sense to any 19th century physicist. It only comes into its own after you look at all the other conserved (or seemingly conserved) quantities particle physicists were discovering in the 20th century. So yes, there is a place for talking about the amazing depth of her finding, but not here.

[@tomc642]

@@Kathy_Loves_Physics @5:11 when referring to Leibnitz and his living force, can’t understand one of the words “.. when objects found ( ? ) each other”. The word is muffled, what does it say?

[@robertrogers7331]

Emilie du Chatelet translated Newton not only into French, but more importantly, into human. Her mastery of The Calculus allowed her to modulate Newton's notation into a form that fundamentally enhanced its acquisition. Too many women are known as so and so's girlfriend. When I think of Voltaire I consider him to be 'that guy' who was Emilie du Chatelet's boyfriend. Excellent content, superior presentation, concisely presented.

[@dahawk8574]

Voltaire was Emilie’s boyfriend. That’s a brilliant line. I can imagine Kathy wishing she came up with that herself for this video.

[@robertrogers7331]

I am a physics guy and a spoken word broadcaster. Thank Goddess that KZbin exists and that you are the madwoman that you are. Clearly you are driven as you dig out the details of the lives and times of the discoverers and then beautifully blend it with their original writing. My education was painful, the material drab and flat. Your productions are the work of an enthusiastic communications angel and will surely be an ongoing basic resource for generations of students. P.S. Emilie is my hero.... that scribbler was lucky to be her boyfriend.

[@Kathy_Loves_Physics]

“ that scribbler was lucky to be her boyfriend” is the best description of Voltaire EVER!!! ❤️

[@tfragia1]

Physics books make it seem like energy is this very simple and obvious concept, but it's clear from the history that it wasn't. 🙂 Thanks Kathy. I'm a new subscriber. 👍

[@V7B817]

They also made the Newton's three laws of motion looks so obvious but completely failed to describe how it was a revolutionary idea

[@dnaphysics]

Wonderful history! Thank you, Kathy. I wish we could add just a bit more to the video to say how the brilliant Emmy Noether came along in 1918 and reconnected energy and momentum into something remarkably simple. She showed that the conservation of energy is just another way of saying that physical laws don’t change over time, and that conservation of momentum is just another way of saying that physical laws don’t change with position in space. Then we could have started and ended with two brilliant women, Emilie Chatelet and Emmy Noether!

[@Zamicol]

I'm re-watching some of your older videos. I love your presentation! You're excellent at what you do. Thank you Kathy!

[@chrohcl]

I absolutely love this. It must take a lot of thoughts to be able to chain so many names and discoveries together in such a clear and smooth manner. No, I wouldn't find this too long to listen to. Thanks a lot for the video. Liked and subscribed.

[@MMKamell]

I am so glad that I finally found a KZbin channel that discusses history of physics. Thanks a million!!

[@GoCoyote]

I wish I had had this in school as I grew up! I hope many teachers are using these to teach with. Fun, engaging, and instructive. Seeing how ideas and discoveries are interwoven with the people and knowledge of their times is one of the most important parts of history.

[@janetmorgan9782]

A great exposition of the topic. The historical approach enhnced my understanding. I look forward to viewing the next video

[@johngough2958]

I used to work in the midlands of England where people used to talk about Joule's beer - except they always pronounced it as "~Jowl's beer". Some of these were physicists and never made the connection between Joule's beer and James Joule (despite knowing he did his experiments in a brewery) until I pointed it out. The webpage you showed of Joule Brewery confirms this. So we're probably all saying it wrong - it's Joule but pronounced as jowl.

[@xyachtie]

So good Kathy that I've watched this several times over the last 3 years. A great refresher for me on my engineering education 50 years ago. Fun to retain some understanding many years later. Love your channel!

[@artdonovandesign]

Thank you, Kathy! I was waiting for one of the important science communicators to FINALLY devote a comprehensive episode on Emile du Chatelet! I'm glad this was done on your channel :)

[@artdonovandesign]

P.S. I want to memorize every word of your script so I can, at last, have the sciences, important figures and their theories accurately attributed, described and in perfect historical sequence. Again, Thank you Professor!

[@keacoq]

Oh no, the others are shorter. But this was soooo good. Amazing that you identified all these connections, worked out the important bits, explained it all, and added some human interest background, all in so short a video.

[@NME10E]

Amazing video Kathy! I’m self learning mathematics and although my initial intention for learning was for design and mechanical engineering, I find myself falling in love with the endless depths of exploration the ocean of mathematics possesses. Thank you for creating!!

[@valentinsolis673]

Omg im obsessed with your channel since I found it, I've always wanted to know about the history of the topics im learning! This is pure gold, thank u so much from Argentina

[@argcargv]

Wonderful. You know that we should include history of science in grade school history. I think it would help to improve the approach-ability of science if we all knew these back stories. I have been binge watching your series after discovering you. You are a great storyteller!

[@franciscoferreiracarmo4397]

Amazing and delightful! It’s always a pleasure to watch your videos. Thanks a lot!

[@vincentpinto1127]

Simply fascinating, Kathy!! It's remarkable to know the finer human details that have gone behind all this. Subscribed! I look forward to viewing your other videos, and loving the history, too, behind the physics!

[@ecospider5]

One of the most enjoyable videos I have seen in a long time. Thanks.

[@humbertoramos2265]

Wow, thanks Kathy for such high quality content. I think the video has the exactly the right amount of time needed to cover all those incredible thinkers.

[@Kathy_Loves_Physics]

Glad you liked it

[@mathdeepak]

All your videos are really well researched. They give a new way of looking at these concepts. I hope Kathy writes a book compiling all the videos.

[@Kathy_Loves_Physics]

Funny you mentioned it. I *did* write a book (actually I finished 1 book and wrote part of 2 more). My first one should be available spring of 2022. Join my email list (in about me page) for more information or just subscribe as I will talk about it A Lot.

[@jacobshick3775]

I have been binge watching your whole library. No youtube channel balances the science and storytelling better. Bravo. A little production improvement might go a long way.. Cant wait to see you go viral, just a matter of when.

[@user-sb7xm5us9c]

Admirable! This is a very smooth approach and first step to enter to the endless world of energy in all its forms. Congrats

[@NathanOkun]

Great!! I particularly enjoy the fact that you give the REAL inventors of things their "place in the sun" instead of only the later people who may have used the information and were incorrectly thought to have developed the first ideas about it. Again, great!

[@Marce159951]

What a great video! I saved it in my lists, thank you!!

[@rohanthakur4833]

Work and energy have confused me for ages! Brilliant video, thank you Kathy!

[@susbedoo]

You are doing a great work. Thanks for sharing this

[@cameronmclennan942]

These videos are so good, Kathy!

[@marin4311]

What an enjoyable teacher you are. Thank you, Kathy.

[@dimitriosharisis]

Very instructing! I also liked the Kazantzakis book behind.

[@vatsdimri3675]

Just found this great channel. Already binge watched a few videos. History is fascinating.

[@Yotrek]

This is amazing. So important to us and our young people that progress (ie. Continually decreasing local entropy) is a process. That these icons didn’t think of everything at once. That each one developed and refined their theories over years. You just inspired me to be kinder to myself.

[@hankcohen3419]

I loved this. There is a problem in the way we teach mathematics and physics these days. It is that we are taught the standard results without any of the context. What you have presented is the train of thought that brought us to the standard model. This is immensely useful to students because it builds on ideas one by one in the order that they were discovered. This allows the understanding of the student to be built up in the same way that the knowledge was discovered. When I was a student I had one professor who presented mathematics in this way. It was a revelation to me. That subject was mathematical logic and he talked about how one discovery raised a new question and how that question was resolved. Perhaps modern teachers don't think that they have the time to present the background but if they take the time the students will find the subject vastly more interesting and integrate the knowledge far better than simply presenting the final result.

[@zray2937]

Strong disagree. Physics is taught with a modern (refined and distilled) train of thought based on general principles that can be inferred from observable facts the students can replicate in their lab classes. The historical train of thought of any field in physics is convoluted, extremely messy. Learning Carnot's original formulation of the theory does not bring any insight into the know well-confirmed theory of thermodynamics.

[@ruanlslima]

omg your channel is everything I wanted to find! You are a fantastic story teller! Thank you!

[@Kathy_Loves_Physics]

Thanks glad you liked it

[@warishell8625]

Love the details of this history and how it all built, Energy and Discover are my passions, and I could only dream one day of breaking new ground, until then i will keep trying to understand it and use it as well as I can, thanks Kathy!

[@meteor09]

You're videos are truly wonderful! I can't stop watching!

[@LOL-wf1fk]

Thanks a lot ma'am😇😇... Your series has proven very helpful in finally sorting out the messed up history of thermodynamics and energy.

[@jimshilleto5655]

Hi, Kathy. I really enjoy your videos. Somewhere you asked for topics people would like covered. I would like you to talk about the relationship between Heisenberg's matrix approach to quantum mechanics and Schroedinger's wave equation approach - the approaches themselves, their similarities and differences and how they were discovered. Thanks again for your videos.

[@stauffap]

I love this video. You must have spent days or even weeks reading their work. It's so interesting to hear all of those familiar names and what they were really writing :)

[@_John_Sean_Walker]

Thank you, Kathy, I love you. Nowadays we would add "Charge" to the "Potential" side of the Types of Energy card (20:07), like a capacitor can store electrical charge. But I guess there are other things we could squeeze into this card too. Keep up the good work, and have a good one, Kathy.

[@seanmeehan5955]

It most definitely didn't run too long. Great video!

[@enricolucarelli816]

Great video! Like all the other history based explanations on the fundamental concepts of physics! I miss two keystones in this video which would make for a great second part of this video: E=mc2, and Noether’s theorem regarding energy conservation 👏👏👏👏

[@aimardom]

Amazing explanation. Kudos!

[@q_kun1494]

Getting to know about the trials and errors of ideas of brilliant minds and their development into robust theories as we recognise today, is in a way like filling a gap that was always there and could never be filled by conventional sources. As a physics nerd i find it so wholesome. And the little facts about the lives of these scientists sprinkled occasionally make even more interesting and engaging. Glad to have found this channel🙌

[@ThomasHaberkorn]

Wow, can't get enough of this channel

[@mateuszbaszczyk9582]

It is an astonishingly great chanel - as a person who has little to do with science of physics in day-to-day life - I am delighted with the clarity and intelligibility of these videos. I'm impressed. Please keep up the good work! :) Greetings from Poland!

[@Kathy_Loves_Physics]

Thank you so much for your lovely words, you made my day! Cheers, Kathy (from San Francisco) ps. have you seen my video about Marie Sklodowska Curie? As a person living in Poland thought it might interest you: kzbin.info/www/bejne/bGXUYoVra815oLs

[@mateuszbaszczyk9582]

Happy to hear this! :) I have not seen your video about Maria Skłodowska-Curie - but I will for sure (a great woman)! To be honest - I found your channel by accident when I was searching information about Edison, Westinghouse and Tesla after watching "Current War" (great movie in my opinion) - and now I love it! :) Waiting for your video about Entropy. Cheers, Mateusz

[@benzirosenski9812]

Amazing work. Wonderfull research

[@surendranmk5306]

What a fantastic class of physics history! You are so extra ordinary! Touring us through the past centuries, introducing legendary peoples, exactly explaining how things came out. No doubt, you are one of the angels of science!💖

[@feraudyh]

This is addictive. But more importantly it really shines a lot of light on my understanding of physics.

[@coldfinger459sub0]

Wow so much more then what I learned in grammar and High school. I love your videos

[@claude2243]

Kathy, this is my second lecture of yours that I am watching. It’s really good that you dig into the original materials. And I enjoy your style of presenting the history of physics. Thanks! Concerning the concept of energy, I wonder if the Bernoulli brothers are worth mentioning. Were they not the first ones to use the concept of internal energy and among the first to impose energy conservation? Thanks

[@michaelfoster8929]

Yes another great video Kathy

[@ivanurbina2422]

Awesome history of Energy and the origin of E=mc2. I loved it 😊

[@abelquiron2653]

What a wonderful video. Thanks.

[@rasmusfriberg5520]

Again, such interesting review on the scientific history on the topic of Energy. Great Work would Prof Coriolis have said ! 😉

[@XB10001]

I love the history of scientific discoveries, and you explain it very well. Your videos remind me of the TV series "Connections" (with James Burke).

[@Kathy_Loves_Physics]

Thank you! That show was brilliant and influenced me greatly.

[@krittikabiswas8500]

So glad I found your channel !!!!

[@nepherpitoato110]

finally i find a channel about physics history and haw equations are found ...thank youuuuu a lot merci beaucoup :)

[@Kathy_Loves_Physics]

My pleasure- glad you liked it (notice I am not even including a tiny bit of my high school French, because you can see how well that stuck with me).

[@peterthepilot4413]

Wonderful, I have been in hundreds of lectures yours is incredible!

[@Kathy_Loves_Physics]

Thanks 😊

[@jeetanand8407]

Excellent! ! You are the only person who gave the importance of history to science it deserved. What happened to kinetic energy formula how it got accepted by others? Was the idea of kinetic energy rational? How did Coriolis derive it? Which university or text book was the first to accept 1/2mv2 as kinetic energy? What is the story of potential energy. When did people started to replace weight with mass times acceleration? History of society's acceptance of ideas is much more interesting than those ideas itself becuase it involves realisation, rationalisation & justification to the original radical ideas. while standardising the S.I units how did everybody agree to accept joule as the unit of energy. Do they pass any resolution paper? What scientific justification their resolution paper reflect? If you have access to such papers of BIPM please make a series on that. Hope you are well. I may write you soon to your mailbox. please make More detailed videos about how definition of work got publicly accepted because it was fundametal to understanding energy quantitatively. why on earth someone someday out of thin air decide to multiply force with distance to call it work? magic? if not what was the math? Magic happened with the defination of momentum. Multiply velocity with mass you get momentum! pure magic out of thin air !! Understanding the original definer's justification to the definition may give more pleasure to mind. was momentum experimentally determined ? Please illuminate on this. Potential energy equation is based on this force time distace idea as mgh. mg as force and h as distace.

[@danielreschke2312]

I'm a Johnny come lately to this channel. However I love everything about this presentation and information. In my young life I choose medical over engineering, and I only wish I could have had this speaker as a teacher back then.

[@stuartbaker3897]

Wonderful Kathy. When I ‘learned’ (really only some superficial equations but it was enough for Pharmacy 😀) thermodynamics in the early 1970s the lecturer was really good but he left out all of the slow struggle and history of the very gradual process that you describe so well. He didn’t even mention the crucial role of the Industrial Revolution and steam engines, mores the pity. Just a small unscientific addition - when Thomson was knighted in 1866 he became Sir William Thomson (as shown on the title page of one of the publications you pictured) and he didn’t become Lord Kelvin until his ennoblement in 1892.

[@ordinary_gmail_user1834]

This kind of things should be taught to all future engineers and scientists. People may think the laws of thermodynamics are easy but in fact, they are really the epitome of physical and philosophical thinking beyond the simple mathematical expression. Love this.

[@rolfw2336]

Awesome history lesson!

[@dogbiscuituk]

Love your work!

[@johndufeu9894]

What a great video. Thank you

[@evcaliz]

This is amazing. Thank you so very much.

[@josesaldivar655]

Hi Kathy. You are like that Lady Emily at first. Very educated and smart. Very good account on Thermo. Please tell us more about you and your profession surely a Mechanical Engineer and Physicist.

[@keybawd4023]

Never too long! I am always sad when they finish. Absolutely fascinating.

[@supermikeb]

Loved the video! Thanks Kathy.

[@Kathy_Loves_Physics]

Thanks super Mike ;)

[@devamjani8041]

You forgot to mention that Emilie was also the first to arrive at the almost complete equation of kinetic energy. She arrived at K directly proportional to mv².

[@erikziak1249]

This video was long? Have not noticed until the end when Kathy mentioned it. And yes, 22:41. It certainly did not feel that long. It is a pleasure to watch, I completely forgot about time.

[@Kathy_Loves_Physics]

Thanks. I used to try to keep my video short and I think this was around the video where I gave up on that. Now I commonly make videos 25 even 38 minutes long! I should call myself Kathy loves physics, History and talking.

[@boombap3454]

Exactly what i was looking for.Thank you.

[@ozymandiasking173]

Another terrific video. I'm thrilled to have found your channel.

[@Kathy_Loves_Physics]

I'm thrilled you found me too!

[@onlyeyeno]

Mdme du Chatelet appears to have been one of the truly great minds, just imagine what more she could have accomplished had she not so tragically died "before her time". Thanks for a great video on an interesting subject that I knew all too little of. Best regards.

[@fafner1]

Realize Kathy was already dealing with a lot of personalities, but disappointed the Benjamin Thompson, Count Rumford, was left out. Rumford, born in America but considered British, while living in Bavaria came up with the equivalence of work and heat after observing the boring cannon with dull tools took more work and resulted in more heat. Thompson married Marie-Anne Lavoisier, the widow of the great French chemist Antoine Lavoisier. Madam Lavoisier was brilliant in her own right, and it is thought much of Antoine's work was done in collaboration with her.

[@howardfabio]

Wow, It took 100+ years for the "energy" concept to evolve and converge to the scientific community's consensus - such an evolution process is quite inspirational.

[@frictionless]

Great video! Keep uploading!

[@daemonnice]

I wish I could add a like for every time I watch these as I have pretty much watched every video of yours multiple times.

[@Kathy_Loves_Physics]

Your last name fits, thank you

[@jamessanborn3043]

Just discovered your channel. Like the way you make the “connections”, a la James Burke. ☺️

[@factchecker9358]

Very well done

[@ICHBinCOOLERalsJeman]

this is great and very informative, I am very happy to have found this channel

[@Kathy_Loves_Physics]

I am happy you found me too.

[@insightfool]

Wow. Fantastic, once again.

[@jonathanpickles2946]

Very illuminating. My YT "avatar" is Joule's brewery on the Trent & Mersey canal in Stone 14:35. I'd no idea that Joule was related to the unit of energy Joule!

[@PedroFelipe-pz8vs]

Greetings from Brasil, keep up with the good work, professor. You simply don't get how you are assisting me with history of physics. And also, sorry if I made any mistake writing, my english isn't the best ones

[@Kathy_Loves_Physics]

Pedro, so glad you liked the video and it made sense to you even in a second language! Cheers from California

[@alxgz1z]

Love your content.

[@iacobaccci]

Great work! Just my comment is that work is the negative change in potential energy.

[@tekoa.9450]

I absolutely love this lady's work. How I wished your videos can be translated into other languages. You are the first inductee into my Scientific History HOF!

[@Kathy_Loves_Physics]

I would love to have my videos translated into other languages.

[@rachelbrionesbriones8042]

simply WOW! I´ll watch this 10 times

[@rolandmousaa3110]

Great education.. thanks..

[@garymartin9777]

I really enjoy hearing the true stories of the Who's Who of early physics.

[@orsoncart802]

Superb, Kathy. 👍👍👍 One gets glimpses in textbooks of who did what and when but never the whole messy story of how the ideas were developed. I need to see the mess to get a grip on how these ideas came about. Great videos! Thank you. 😁 P.S. Lagrange! It has just occurred to me that the Lagrangian for a system is L = T - V, i.e. the kinetic energy minus the potential energy. I know Lagrange was 18th century, and Wiki says he developed his Lagrangian mechanics between 1772 and 1788. I wonder how this fits into the story. Any thoughts?

[@SergeCeyral]

Thx for your great video. I think that Emilie du Chatelet's most audacious intuition was that kinetic energy ("vis viva") couln't be lost when a ball hits the ground, but was transformed into another form of energy ("vis mortua"= potential energy). She was the very first one to imagine the concept of energy exchange and conservation, elaborated 100 yrs later by Carnot, Clausius, Helmholtz... Btw, E.du C. was a bit ironic about Voltaire: she wrote that, when in Cirey-sur-Blaise castle, Voltaire used to test his theater pieces on the small caste stage : all the castle crew HAD to attend performances and give big applause! If not, they were punished!

[@BritishBeachcomber]

Awesome lady. Way ahead of her time.

[@Singularitarian]

Such a great video!

[@IckMotU]

I dedicate the term "living force" to you and your channel.

[@adhipmitra]

Excellent. Video.