- Introduction
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- Task
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Energy
Energy is the ability to do work and to cause change, and it's present in almost everything we do!
- If you did not eat breakfast, your body would become very tired and you wouldn't feel like doing anything!
- When you pick up objects, the moving objects have energy. For example, when you pick up a golf club, the moving club has energy. When you swing the club, a change occurs when the club strikes the golf ball and changes its motion.
- Consider another example: We put gasoline in our cars so that we can drive it. If your car is out of gas, the motor will not crank and it will not move. The gasoline in the car provides energy to cause a change in the car.
Watch the video Energy Defined to learn more.
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As you learned in the video, energy exists in many different forms. All objects store energy (for example, potential energy can be stored in an object's position). Other forms of energy include heat, light, and electrical energy.
Also, energy can be converted from one form into another form. For example, the chemical energy stored in oil can be converted to thermal energy by burning the oil. Energy conversions are not always efficient and not all forms of energy are equally useful. Transformations of energy may produce less useful forms of energy (such as heat and light, which cannot be recaptured and converted back into electrical energy, for example). As a result, there will always be a need for new energy sources.
Next, we will learn about kinetic energy and potential energy
Kinetic Energy
Kinetic Energy fullscreen version | Kinetic Energy text version
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Potential Energy
Potential Energy fullscreen version | Potential Energy text version
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