The State Function

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state function (noun):
a property of a system which is determined
by the system's current state,
independent of the path taken
to achieve that state.

given these starting values and final values,
determine the delta v for each state.
then explain any conclusions you have drawn.

starting values:
a sapling
a nation
a disease
a talented athlete
a sharp knife
an oppressed people
an altitude of sixty thousand feet
an infestation of rodents

final values:
a tree
two nations
a cure
a broken record
a dull knife
a new liberty
a charred crater, fifty feet wide
a house free of vermin

determine the delta v for each state:
fifty years
a civil war
a scientist who is too busy to notice his son's depression
a steroid injection (or twenty)
six murders
riots in the streets
a fire in the engine room
a mouse, slowly starving in a glue trap
after it has tried to chew off its own limbs
in one last, desperate effort
to escape

conclusion:
life is not a state function.