Potential Energy and the Conservation of Mechanical Energy

D.1 Conservative and Non-conservative Force D.1.1 Introduction A physical system consists of a well-defined set of bodies that are interacting by means of forces. Any bodies that lie outside the boundary of the system reside in the surroundings. A state of the system is a set of measurable physical quantities that completely characterize the system. Figure 1 shows this division into system, boundary, and surroundings. Figure D.1.1: system, boundary, and surroundings. Up to now we have analyzed the dynamical evolution in time of our system under the action of forces using Newtons Laws of Motion. We shall now introduce the concept of Conservation of Energy in order to analyze the change of state of a system. Definition: Change of Energy The total change in energy of a system and its surroundings between the final state and the initial state is zero, ?= EE ? + ?E = 0 (D.1.1) total system surroundings Our quest is then to identify experimentally every type of change of energy for all physical processes and verify that energy is conserved. Can we really play this zero suanswer is that experimentally we can identify all the changes in energy. One important point to keep in mind is that if we add up all the changes in energy and do not arrive at a zero sum then we have an open scientific problem: find the missing change in energy! Our first example of this type of energy accounting involves mechanical energy. There will be of two types of mechanical energy, kinetic energy and potential energy. Our first task is to define what we mean by the change of the potential energy of a system. D-2m game? Is there any physical content to this concept of change of energy? physicsphunhouse.com/physics/Energy.pdf

UNIT 1 - ENERGY SECTION 1 - ENERGEIA CONSERVATION OF ENERGY

Background Information Recall that energy is defined as the ability to do work. Work is done when energy is transferred from one system to another, for instance, when a force is applied to an object. Energy may be either potential or kinetic. Potential energy (PE) is energy stored and ready for use. A car stopped at the top of a hill and a water balloon dangling out of an upstairs window have potential energy. Potential energy is measured by the amount of work the object can perform. In the case of the car or the water balloon, PE is calculated by multiplying the mass of 2 the object (in kilograms) by the acceleration of gravity (9.8 m/sec ) by the height of the hill or 2 2 the window (in meters). Potential energy is expressed in joules (J). 1 J = 1 kg-m / sec The other form of energy is kinetic energy (KE). Kinetic energy is the energy of motion. A car rolling downhill and a water balloon falling towards its target have kinetic energy. For such objects KE is calculated by multiplying 1/2 the objects mass (in kilograms) by the square of its 2 velocity (m/sec ). Because of its greater mass, a falling car has more kinetic energy than a falling water balloon. Similarly, because of its greater velocity, as water balloon that is thrown down will have more kinetic energy than one that is simply dropped from the same height. In fact, since kinetic energy increases with the square of the velocity, a thrown water balloon that is falling twice as 2 fast as a dropped balloon will have four times as much KE (2 = 4). AS these examples show, potential energy can become kinetic energy. Kinetic energy can also be transferred from one object to another: imagine a car or the water balloon striking a pingpong ball and sending it flying. Recall also that kinetic energy comes in six forms - chemical, electrical, radiant, mechanical, nuclear, and thermal- and that each of these forms can be converted into any of the other forms. For example, a battery converts chemical energy into electricity, and a light bulb

converts electricity into light and heat. Not all energy conversions are a simple as turning on a light bulb . A power plant that uses coal to generate electricity for your home is a complex system that converts the chemical energy in coal into thermal energy, mechanical energy, and then electrical energy. www.energyeducation.tx.gov/pdf/114_inv.pdfMirip -

Conservation of Energy
Energy can be defined as the capacity for doing work. It may exist in a variety of forms and may be transformed from one type of energy to another. However, these energy transformations are constrained by a fundamental principle, the Conservation of Energy principle. One way to state this principle is "Energy can neither be created nor destroyed". Another approach is to say that the total energy of an isolated system remains constant even as energy changes from one form to another. 2 Kinetic Energy: Ek = mv where m = mass, v = velocity Kinetic energy is energy of motion. The kinetic energy of an object is the energy it possesses because of its motion. Kinetic energy is an expression of the fact that a moving object can do work on anything it hits; it quantifies the amount of work the object could do as a result of its motion 2 Gravitational Potential Energy: Eg = mgh where m = mass, g =9.8 m/s , h = height Gravitational potential energy is energy an object possesses because of its position in a gravitational field. The most common use of gravitational potential energy is for an object near the surface of the Earth where the gravitational acceleration can be assumed 2 to be constant at about 9.8 m/s . Since the zero of gravitational potential energy can be chosen at any point (like the choice of the zero of a coordinate system), the potential energy at a height h above that point is equal to the work which would be required to lift the object to that height with no net change in kinetic energy.

2 Elastic Potential Energy: Ee = 1/2kx where k = spring constant, x = change in length of spring Elastic potential energy is stored as a result of deformation of an elastic object, such as the stretching of a spring. It is equal to the work done to stretch the spring, which

depends upon the spring constant k (measured in N/m) as well as the distance stretched. According to Hooke's law (F = kx), the force required to stretch the spring will be directly proportional to the amount of stretch.

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