Energy is one of the central concepts of physics, and one of the most difficult to define. One of the reasons we have such a hard time defining it is because it appears in so many different forms. There is the kinetic and potential energy of kinematic motion, the thermal energy of heat reactions, the chemical energy of your discman batteries, the mechanical energy of a machine, the elastic energy that helps you launch rubber bands, the electrical energy that keeps most appliances on this planet running, and even mass energy, the strange phenomenon that Einstein discovered and that has been put to such devastating effect in the atomic bomb. This is only a cursory list: energy takes on an even wider variety of forms.
How is it that an electric jolt, a loud noise, and a brick falling to the ground can all be treated using the same concept? Well, one way of defining energy is as a capacity to do work: any object or phenomenon that is capable of doing work contains and expends a certain amount of energy. Because anything that can exert a force or have a force exerted on it can do work, we find energy popping up wherever there are forces.
Energy, like work, is measured in joules (J). In fact, work is a measure of the transfer of energy. However, there are forms of energy that do not involve work. For instance, a box suspended from a string is doing no work, but it has gravitational potential energy that will turn into work as soon as the string is cut. We will look at some of the many forms of energy shortly. First, let’s examine the important law of conservation of energy.
Conservation of Energy
As the name suggests, the law of conservation of energy tells us that the energy in the universe is constant. Energy cannot be made or destroyed, only changed from one form to another form. Energy can also be transferred via a force, or as heat. For instance, let’s return to the example mentioned earlier of the box hanging by a string. As it hangs motionless, it has gravitational potential energy, a kind of latent energy. When we cut the string, that energy is converted into kinetic energy, or work, as the force of gravity acts to pull the box downward. When the box hits the ground, that kinetic energy does not simply disappear. Rather, it is converted into sound and heat energy: the box makes a loud thud and the impact between the ground and the box generates a bit of heat.
This law applies to any closed system. A closed system is a system where no energy leaves the system and goes into the outside world, and no energy from the outside world enters the system. It is virtually impossible to create a truly closed system on Earth, since energy is almost always dissipated through friction, heat, or sound, but we can create close approximations. Objects sliding over ice or air hockey tables move with a minimal amount of friction, so the energy in these systems remains nearly constant. Problems on SAT II Physics that quiz you on the conservation of energy will almost always deal with frictionless surfaces, since the law of conservation of energy applies only to closed systems.
