After this lesson you should be able to answer the following
- What is the law of Conservation of energy
- What is Potential energy
- What is Kinetic energy
- Give examples off bodies possessing both Kinetic & Potential
- Solve questions involving P.E & K.E
- Explain the different type of renewable energy and give examples of them
conservation of energy
The conservation of energy is a fundamental concept of physics along with the conservation of mass and the conservation of momentum. Within some problem domain, the amount of energy remains constant and energy is neither created nor destroyed. This is the NASA definition. For CXC you could say energy cannot be created or destroyed but be changed from one form to another. For example a windmill turns wind energy into electrical energy. All energy transformation heat is always produced as a by product.
Potential energy
Potential energy is the energy a body has because of its position, the formula is given by PE = mgh.
Where
- m = mass
- g = acceleration due to gravity
- h = height
Kinetic energy
Kinetic energy is the energy a body has because of its motion. Therefroe once an object that has mass an is in motion it has kinetic energy the formula is given by [latex]\frac { 1 }{ 2 } m{ v }^{ 2 }[/latex]
Where
m = mass
v = velocity
