mechanical system will find a way to lose energy

An example of anthropomoorphic language in a scientist's writing:

"Any mechanical system, given a chance, will find a way to lose energy to its surroundings and fall into a condition in which it retains the lowest energy permitted to it."

"The electron [in a hydrogen atom] can be excited by enough energy from outside into a permitted state with higher energy. But after it has been excited, it will quickly find some way to deliver the extra energy back to its environment and so to return to the permitted state with the lowest energy."

Alan Holden

Holden, A. (1965). The Nature of Solids. Columbia University Press.

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Author: Keith

Former school and college science teacher, teacher educator, research supervisor, and research methods lecturer. Emeritus Professor of Science Education at the University of Cambridge.