Energy: How Work Gets Done In science energy is defined as the capacity to do wo
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Energy: How Work Gets Done
In science energy is defined as the capacity to do work. Any time something changes position, speed, or state (e.g. solid to liquid) work is being done. Energy is broken down into two main categories, potential for stored energy and kinetic for things in motion. Although energy itself cannot be created or destroyed, it can change form or be transferred from one object to another. For example, the potential energy stored in a bow can be transferred to an arrow which then possesses kinetic energy as it flies through the air towards its target. This energy is then transferred to whatever the arrow hits causing it to stop moving. This week you will be looking at the different forms of energy that you use throughout your day and where it comes from such as from sources like coal, wind, or oil in your written assignment. In seminar you’ll learn more about the broader definition of energy, the different forms it takes, and how it can be transferred from one form to another.
Write and submit a short paper. In a 400-word paper, discuss the questions below...
1. Where on a roller coaster ride do you experience the most gravitational potential energy?
2. Energy cannot be created or destroyed, but some of the energy is lost during the transfers on this ride. That is why the ride cannot go on forever. If the tracks were long enough it would run out of energy and the cars would stop on their own without having to apply brakes. Where is the energy going?
Now let’s look at how the concepts of kinetic and potential energy can be applied to something you might use every day such as a car.
3. What different forms of potential energy can be used to power a car? How would you determine what the original form of potential energy was for an electric car?
4. How is this potential energy converted into the kinetic energy of a moving car?
5. When you hit the brakes what happens to the kinetic energy?
6. Come up with a new example for each of the following situations:
Potential energy transformed to kinetic energy.
Kinetic energy transferring from one object to another.
Kinetic energy transformed to potential energy.
Explanation / Answer
Ans 1) When the roller coaster ride is at the top then it posseses maximum gravitational potential energy.
Ans 2) The loss of energy is beacuse of the external factors like heat , friction etc and that is why there is no complete transfer of energy from one form to another, some part of the energy is lost.
Ans 3) From moving a car from top of a hill to down , it will use gravitational potential energy. Chemical energy in cars is also a type of stored chemical energy. Mechanical energy from the motor can be used to power a car.
For an electric car , potential energy in the form of charge which is stored in the batteries is used, so stored chemical enegy is the form of potential energy in electric cars.
Ans 4) When potential energy is stored in a car ,because of the potential energy the car starts and starts moving and gains velocity which gets converted into kinetic energy and hence potential energy is converted into kinetic energy.
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