some scientists decided one day long ago that they would measure the speed of light. their reasoning was sound - they had nothing else to do. at first their experiments weren't very promising. but a humble apprentice decided to take things into his own hands. every evening when the candleguides came out to light the lamps he would run between the posts. he found the speed of light to be about half that of a runner's.
all over the world people were amazed by this boy's achievement. when the scientists published the report claiming the speed of light was not half, but well over double the speed of even the fastest athletes, naturally the populace was skeptical. ten towns over another scientist in the field of manipuology came to visit with the frustrated scientists and proposed a way to present their findings. simply train the boy to repeat his experiments by running faster each day.
the scientists instruct their apprentice and he repeats his experiment every evening when the lamplighters come. in a month the speed of light doubled; in a year the speed of light was immeasurable. one day the boy ran so fast between the posts that they were lit in the blink of an eye. the lamplighters became bored and found new jobs.
this is the story of how such nonsensical concepts like potential energy and automatic street lights came to exist.