Energy that is moving and energy that is stored, how it moves from place to place and changes type, and following it through a whole system. Concept tutorials with a roller coaster and energy flow diagrams.
Kinetic and potential energy, transfers and transformations, by-product heat and flow diagrams (AC9S8U05).
Energy comes in two big families. Kinetic energy is energy of activity: movement, heat, sound, light and electricity. Potential energy is stored, ready to be released: chemical (food, fuel, batteries), gravitational (things up high) and elastic (things stretched or squashed). Energy can change from one to the other and back.
In a transfer, the same type of energy moves from one place to another (heat from a hot drink into your hands). In a transformation, energy changes type (chemical energy in a battery becomes electrical, then light). Almost every transformation also makes some heat that isn't wanted: a by-product.
Real systems pass energy through many steps. A flow diagram follows it from start to end: a box for each stage, an arrow for each transfer or transformation, and side arrows for every by-product. Tracing all the outputs, useful and not, is how you find out where energy goes.
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