Primary Inspiration: Richard Feynman
The kernel on matter presents the atomic thesis, simplified atomic structure, and the electron basis of chemistry, along with basic vocabulary pertaining to matter.
Richard Feynman's Single Sentence Approach is the thought experiment and formulation which inspired the kernel approach to the Missive Project.
It presents the atomic thesis, and with it, arguably enough information to provide a framework and starting point for much or even all further exploration. Once started upon the path, future investigators could unfold this statement - via experimentation - to reproduce all of the physical sciences.
Not being restricted to one sentence, more useful information can be added. The trick is finding the right amount; enough to lay a foundation for other kernels (such as chemistry), without becoming bogged down in detail or worse, encouraging dogma on the receiving end.
Original Formulation (excerpted from Richard Feynman's Lecture)
...All things are made of atoms—little particles that move around in perpetual motion, attracting each other when they are a little distance apart, but repelling upon being squeezed into one another.
Book of Physics – The Way of Things
Chapter: Forewarning
These words are not truth
this childs taleTells of first stepsTo set you on the track
Yet beware this path
Despite wonders along the wayit leads to worlds endAnd the death of all you love
it is mastery over thingsit is power beyond imagining
power attracts the worstpower corrupts the best
Choose well your steps
guard well your knowledge
Follow wiselyFollow for goodFollow with care
Or follow not at all
it is mastery over things
guard well your knowledge
Chapter: First Things
all is motion
nothing is still
there is no end
only change
what moves
what warms
what does work
what flows from flame
or from muscle
we call energy
energy is
the restless heart of all
it cannot be made
it cannot be lost
it only moves
from shape
to shape
some energy binds itself
tightly curled and waiting
this we call matter
the stuff of rocks
of water
of bodies
matter is slow energy
with shape
with weight
with place
from vapor to rain
from seed to tree
from birth to death
this we call change
the form and order of matter
we call space
the flow and order of change
we call time
time is the stretch of change
bends are energy
and energy bends all
if you would know
the way of things
begin here
with what moves
with what is
and how all things
become
Chapter: Energy
energy is the mystery
at the heart of all
is it the measure of change?
is it the cause of change?
is it change itself?
do we ask the right question?
we call it energy
and it is never lost
only moved
only changed in form
energy flows in waves
energy projects as particles
energy coursing free
travels at the speed of light
as fast as the world allows
how would it look
to travel that fast?
how would we measure space?
how would we measure time?
energy drawn tight
bound in a knot
we call matter
the stuff we take
for the solid world
cut the knot
energy bounds free
terrible in its joy
energy in use
is the capacity to do work
to cause change
energy absorbed
we know as heat
Chapter: Matter
break a stone to bits
grind the bits to powder
reduce the powder
and again
comes a point we can no further
an elemental piece of the world
a knot of energy
pulling at itself so strongly
it is indivisible
we this point an atom
the stuff of all things
of which all things are made
never still
but vibrating always
in step with that energy
we know as heat
at a little distance
atoms attract
pushed close together
atoms repel
atoms carry sparks
we call electrons
stuff of lightning
flowing free or binding
one element to another
tokens in exchange
we call the imbalance of electrons charge
surplus we call positive
deficit we call negative
like charge repels like
opposite attracts
attraction binds
elements into molecules
Chapter: Chemistry
we call chemistry
the interactions of atoms
their behaviors and transitions
their binding and unbinding
may appear in states
according to energy present
as solid
as liquid
as gas
atoms are of many kinds
we call each kind an element
elements resist all fracture
withstanding all forces
each kind stays true
when elements combine
ever in exact forms
ever in exact numbers
ever in exact weights
electrons share to bind
we call them compounds
combined as molecules
compounds transform with heat
compounds transform
in the presence of others
all can be reduced to elements
mixtures are diverse
and may be sorted
without transformation
into compounds
into elements
in whatever portions
they were mixed
if you would know
atoms in their workings
atoms in their uses
atoms in their dangers
follow the Way of Knowing
Chapter: Water – A Drink of Matter
think of water
we know it as
fog and cloud
rain and hail
snow and ice
we know it as
river and lake
sea and sky
sap and blood
we know it as a compound
liquid — water
water — ice
gas — steam
water is a teacher
of the ways of all matter
yet water is special
matter and matrix
mother and medium
where it flows
life follows
we measure heat
by how things are changed
with thermal energy
added and lost
held and released
this measure
scaled along a range
we call temperature
with water
with all matter
low energy is solid
middle energy is liquid
high energy is gas
each element
each compound
its own pair of thresholds
its own shift points
water is special
changing state in plain view
liquid water
freezing solid
let it be zero
liquid water
boiling to gas
let it be 100
so water marks
waypoints along
a scale of change
a scale of temperature
useful for thermal measure
but when water
melts or boils
it takes heat
without warming
what does the heat do
when temperature stays the same?
water has weight
and takes up space
all things
have weight
and take up space
how much weight
in how much space
we call density
if we compare to water
might we have a measure?
what sinks
what floats
depends on this—
the relative density
of one to the other
most things shrink
as they grow cold
becoming more dense
solids sinking
in their own liquid state
but water is special
liquid water
expands
on freezing
ice floats
on water
less dense
than its liquid form
how might the world be
were not water so special?
water mixes
without combining
with many substances
it carries
what it dissolves
from one place
to another
it carries
things that help
and things that harm
each according to its nature
what is carried
may settle out
or be filtered out
beware that which may not
water may also carry what lives
too small to be seen
beware what lives in water
that would prefer to live in you
look out to sea
and the rising sun
sun warms
water steams
evaporating
into air
rising to clouds
cooling and condensing
water falls
as rain
rain runs to rivers
rivers to sea
carving canyons
carrying mountains
it wears stone
bears earth
moves heat
around the world
its cycle
shapes weather
shapes seasons
shapes our world
in water’s motion
in water’s return
how would you reckon time?
water is liquid
in a narrow range
between ice
and steam
yet across deep time
through fire and frost
sun and shadow
the sea remains
why has it not
boiled away?
why has it not
frozen solid?
what holds our world—
what holds our water—
in such delicate balance?
if you would know
what matter is like
what is the sea
what shapes the land
what feeds the root
what cools the fire
what moves the sky
follow water
Chapter: Force
what flows
what moves
what resists
what changes
does so by force
we know force by what it does
it stretches
it bends
it breaks
it throws
it holds
it stops
force has strength
force has direction
effecting change
force is push
force is pull
force comes with contact
when things collide
force reaches across distance
through a field of energy
without force
there is no change
in all cases
energy is conserved
Chapter: Force and Motion
mass is how much a thing resists
when pushed or pulled
acceleration is change in motion
over time
the force on a thing
is its mass
times its change in motion
no thing changes its motion
unless a force acts upon it
when two things collide
the force each feels
is equal
and opposite
these are the laws of motion
motion is the story
of matter and force
how fast
how far
in what direction
more force
more change
more mass
more effort to move
motion is slowed
by resistance
by drag
by rub
by grip
has momentum
the more mass
the more speed
the more it carries
momentum resists force
it wants to keep
moving as it was
when things collide
momentum is exchanged
one slows
the other goes
momentum is not lost
only given
or taken
motion always answers
to force
every pull
to respond
every pull
its price
Chapter: Gravity – The Pull Between All Things
all things
pull all things
sun pulls earth pulls you
earth pulls moon pulls tides
each of these
all things
pull at all others
the reach and pull
of matter and energy
across space
without touch
we call gravity
it pulls stronger
with more mass
and with closeness
it pulls ever weaker
as distance grows
the farther an effect must reach
to any given distance
the thinner it spreads
the less its effect
like a light in the night
or sound in a calm
double the distance
and the thin-stretched pull
halves
and halves again
this is how fields of energy fade—
of gravity
of light
of lightning—
but never to nothing
falling away to little effect
but never to none
to fall
is to accelerate
to feel weight
is to resist falling
resistance to acceleration
to gravity
to force
we call mass
gravity’s pull at a given distance
to another thing—
the earth
the moon
the sun—
we call weight
gravity pulls and settles matter
weight pulls and shapes it
pulled close and spun toward round
shaping earth and stars
all very large things
mass and weight are not the same
gravity holdswhat motion would lose
and motion holds
what gravity would claim
a thing that falls
but never lands
is said to orbit
caught between downward pull
and forward motion
earth orbits sun
moon orbits earth
you orbit earth
some orbits are circles
some elliptic
but all are the paths
of falling
forever toward
what if gravity
is not a pull
but a bend in space
toward any density
of energy?
where every path
must curve
and all things
move with the shape
that energy has made?
know gravity
and you will know much