2/19/2018 Energy – The Physics Hypertextbook

Energy

Discussion

introduction

A system possesses energy if it has the ability to do work.

Work shifts energy from one system to another.

Energy is…

a scalar quantity,
abstract and cannot always be perceived,
given meaning through calculation,
a central concept in science.

Energy can exist in many different forms. All forms of energy are either kinetic or potential. The energy associated
with motion is called kinetic energy. The energy associated with position is called potential energy. Potential energy
is not "stored energy". Energy can be stored in motion just as well as it can be stored in position. Is kinetic energy
"used up energy"?

kinetic energy

kinetic energy — motion

mechanical energy — motion of macroscopic systems
machines
wind energy
wave energy
sound (sonic, acoustic) energy
thermal energy-- motion of particles of matter
geothermal energy
electrical energy — motion of charges
household current
lightning
electromagnetic radiation — disturbance of electric and magnetic fields (classical physics) or the motion of
photons (quantum physics)
radio, microwaves, infrared, light, ultraviolet, x-rays, gamma rays
solar energy

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Types of kinetic energy (classified by type of object)

type motion examples and subtypes

mechanical machines, muscles, projectiles, wind,

motion of macroscopic objects
energy flowing water, ocean waves, sound,…

thermal random motion of microscopic particles of

heat, fire, geothermal,…
energy matter (molecules, atoms, ions)

electrical household current, AC and DC circuits,

bulk flow of charges (electrons, protons, ions)
energy lightning,…

disturbance propagating through electric and

electromagnetic radio waves, microwaves, infrared, light,
magnetic fields (classical physics) or the
radiation ultraviolet, x-rays, gamma rays
motion of photons (modern physics)

potential energy

potential energy — position

gravitational potential energy
roller coaster
waterwheel
hydroelectric power
electromagnetic potential energy
electric potential energy
magnetic potential energy
chemical potential energy
elastic potential energy
strong nuclear potential energy
nuclear power
nuclear weapons
weak nuclear potential energy
radioactive decay

Types of potential energy (classified by type of field)

force field quantity in field examples and subtypes

gravitational mass roller coaster, waterwheel, hydroelectric reservoir,…

electromagnetic charge electric, magnetic, chemical, elastic,…

strong nuclear color charge nuclear reactors, nuclear weapons,…

weak nuclear lepton number radioactive decay,…

units

joule

English brewer and scientist James Joule (1818–1889) who determined the mechanical equivalent of heat.

⎡⎣J = Nm = kg m ⎤⎦ 2
2

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Approximate energy of selected events

energy type object, phenomena, process, or event

650 nJ kinetic falling snowflake

85 µJ kinetic falling raindrop

3–12 J gravitational an apple in a tree

60 kJ heat making a cup of coffee or tea

270 kJ chemical an apple in the digestive tract

390 kJ kinetic car driving at freeway speed

1.4 MJ electrical television running for four hours

2 MJ chemical stick of dynamite

3.8 MJ chemical food for one person for one year

4.184 GJ chemical ton of TNT, by definition

63 TJ nuclear Hiroshima atomic bomb (Little Boy, 1945)

1.8 PJ kinetic Chelyabinsk meteor impact (2013)

42 PJ kinetic Tunguska meteor impact (1908)

240 PJ nuclear Largest nuclear bomb tested (Tsar Bomba, 1961)

21 EJ electrical one year of operation of Google (2017)

37 EJ electrical one year of Bitcoin mining (2017)

Multitudinous

For those who want some proof that physicists are human, the proof is is the idiocy of all the different units
which they use for measuring energy.

Richard Feynman, 1964

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Energy Units Discussed in This Book

unit joule equivalent equivalent reference

joule 1J   1 N m work

erg 0.1 μJ   1 dyne cm "

foot pound 1.35582 J (approximate)   "

watt second 1J     power

watt hour 3.6 kJ   3,600 W s "

kilowatt hour 3.6 MJ   1,000 W h "

thermochemical calorie 4.184 J (by definition)   heat

International Table calorie 4.1868 J (by definition)   "

kilocalorie*       1,000 calorie "

†
thermochemical Btu 1.054350 kJ (approximate)   "
†
International Table Btu 1.05505585262 kJ (by definition)   "

therm       100,000 Btu "

‡ 15
quad 1.055 EJ (approximate) 10  Btu "

cubic meter natural gas 37–39 MJ (variable)   chemical

ton of oil equivalent 41–45 GJ (variable)   "

ton of coal equivalent 29.3 GJ (approximate)   "

ton of TNT 4.184 GJ (by definition)   "

* The kilocalorie is also known as the kilogram calorie, dietetic calorie, food calorie,

and Calorie (with an uppercase "C").
†
 Btu is the abbreviation for "British thermal unit".
‡
 Quad is the shortened form of "quadrillion Btu".

Atomic and nuclear units

Energy equivalents from atomic and nuclear physics

unit symbol joule equivalent

atomic mass unit u muc2  = 1.492 × 10−10 J

−19
electronvolt eV e  = 1.602 × 10  J
−18
hartree Eh 2R∞hc  = 4.35974381 × 10  J (exact)
−1 −25
inverse meter m hc  = 1.986 × 10  J
−1 −34
inverse second s h  = 6.626 × 10  J

kelvin K k  = 1.381 × 10−23 J
2
kilogram kg c  = 89,875,517,873,681,764 J (exact)

c = speed of light in a vacuum, k = Boltzmann constant,
e = elementary charge, mu = atomic mass unit, h = Planck constant,
R∞ = Rydberg constant

economics

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Another scheme

solar
sunshine
wind
ocean currents
ocean thermal temperature gradients
biomass
food
wood/charcoal
dung
fossil fuels
coal
petroleum
natural gas
everything else
geothermal
tidal
nuclear

Historical Notes

Aristotle of Stagira (384–322 BCE) Greece: first use of the word "energeia" (ἐνέργειά) in the Nicomachean Ethics.
Its contemporary meaning has diverged significantly from Aristotle's original meaning. Aristotle's sense of the
word is often translated as "activity" or "being at work". Energeia literally means to contain work. (en+ergon). In
the Nicomachean Ethics, energeia was contrasted with "hexis" (ἕξις), which meant to "possess" or "to be in the
state of". Energeia meant doing. Hexis meant possessing. Aristotle argues that virtue must be an activity, not just
a state, to ensure happiness. These are terms of ethical philosophy, not science.

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Τοῖς μὲν οὖν λέγουσι τὴν ἀρετὴν ἢ ἀρετήν τινα  
συνῳδός ἐστιν ὁ λόγος· ταύτης γάρ ἐστιν ἡ κατ᾽
αὐτὴν ἐνέργεια. διαφέρει δὲ ἴσως οὐ μικρὸν ἐν
κτήσει ἢ χρήσει τὸ ἄριστον ὑπολαμβάνειν, καὶ ἐν
ἕξει ἢ ἐνεργείᾳ. τὴν μὲν γὰρ ἕξιν ἐνδέχεται μηδὲν
ἀγαθὸν ἀποτελεῖν ὑπάρχουσαν, οἷον τῷ
καθεύδοντι ἢ καὶ ἄλλως πως ἐξηργηκότι, τὴν δ᾽
ἐνέργειαν οὐχ οἷόν τε· πράξει γὰρ ἐξ ἀνάγκης, καὶ
εὖ πράξει. ὥσπερ δ᾽ Ὀλυμπίασιν οὐχ οἱ κάλλιστοι
καὶ ἰσχυρότατοι στεφανοῦνται ἀλλ᾽ οἱ
ἀγωνιζόμενοι (τούτων γάρ τινες νικῶσιν), οὕτω καὶ
τῶν ἐν τῷ βίῳ καλῶν κἀγαθῶν οἱ πράττοντες
ὀρθῶς ἐπήβολοι γίνονται.
  
With those who identify happiness with virtue or
some one virtue our account is in harmony; for to
virtue belongs virtuous activity. But it makes,
perhaps, no small difference whether we place the
chief good in possession or in use, in state of mind
or in activity. For the state of mind may exist
without producing any good result, as in a man who
is asleep or in some other way quite inactive, but the
activity cannot; for one who has the activity will of
necessity be acting, and acting well. And as in the
Olympic Games it is not the most beautiful and the
strongest that are crowned but those who compete
(for it is some of these that are victorious), so those
who act win, and rightly win, the noble and good
things in life.
Aristotle, ca. 320 BCE

1669 Dutch physicist Christiaan Huygens, vis viva or living force is conserved in perfectly elastic collistions
1689 German mathematician Gottfried Leibniz defined vis viva as mass times the square of velocity
1811 Italian mathematician Joseph Lagrange used calculus to show that a factor of two is involved in the
relationship "potential" (potential energy) and "vis viva" (kinetic energy). [2] As defined via the symbols used by
Lagrange, i.e. T as kinetic energy, in his 1788 Analytical Mechanics
Thomas Young (1773–1829) England: first use of the word energy in the modern sense. His definition is almost
the same as our current definition of kinetic energy. He's missing a one-half multiplier out front that makes the
units work out. A Course of Lectures on Natural Philosophy and the Mechanical Arts. London: J. Johnson (1807).
"The term energy may be applied, with great propriety, to the product of the mass or weight of a body, into
the square of the number expressing its velocity." Lecture VIII. On Collision.
"Hence is derived the idea conveyed by the term living or ascending force; for since the height to which a
body will rise perpendicularly, is as the square of its velocity, it will preserve a tendency to rise to a height
which is as the square of its velocity whatever may be the path into which it is directed, provided that it meet
with no abrupt angle, or that it rebound at each angle in a new direction without losing any velocity. The same
idea is somewhat more concisely expressed by the term energy, which indicates the tendency of a body to
ascend or to penetrate to a certain distance, in opposition to a retarding force." Lecture V. On Confined
Motion.
William Rankine (1820–1872) Scotland: first mention of "potential energy" as distinguished from "actual energy".
Since kinetic energy was the first form identified, he attached a modifier to the form of energy he discovered.
Thus the unfortunate notion that kinetic energy is actual energy and potential energy is energy that has the
potential to be actual energy. Energy is energy. No form of energy is any more or less "actual" than any other. The
unfortunate terminology is due to Aristotle who applied the dichotomous terms potentiality and actuality to
several disciplines — motion (Physics, Physica, Τα Φυσικη), causality (Metaphysics, Metaphysica, Τα Μετά Τα
Φυσικά), ethics (Nicomachean Ethics, Ethica Nicomachea, Ηθικά Νικομάχεια), and physiology (On the Soul, De
Anima, Περὶ Ψυχῆς). Philosophy is not science (although there is such a thing as philiosophy of science). Science
should always strive to describe reality as close as possible when it relies on words to do so. Grand

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philosophical modes of organization may be used to some extent, but they shouldn't override the physical reality.
On the general law of the transformation of energy. William John Macquorn Rankine. Philosophical Magazine
Series 4. Vol. 5 No. 30 (1853): 106–117.
"Actual, or Sensible Energy, is a measurable, transmissible, and transformable condition, whose presence
causes a substance to tend to change its state in one or more respects. By the occurrence of such changes,
actual energy disappears, and is replaced by Potential or Latent Energy; which is measured by the product of
a change of state into the resistance against which that change is made. (The vis viva of matter in motion,
thermometric heat, radiant heat, light, chemical action, and electric currents, are forms of actual energy;
amongst those of potential energy are the mechanical powers of gravitation, elasticity, chemical affinity,
statical electricity, and magnetism). The law of the Conservation of Energy is already known—viz., that the
sum of all the energies of the universe, actual and potential, is unchangeable. The object of the present paper
is to investigate the law according to which all transformations of energy, between the actual and potential
forms, take place."
William Thomson, Lord Kelvin (1824–1907) Ireland–Scotland replaced "actual" with "kinetic", but no one has
dared replace "potential" with something better, so we're stuck with it. Kelvin originally proposed the terms
dynamical and statical. On a universal tendency in nature to the dissipation of mechanical energy. William
Thomson. Philosophical Magazine Series 4. Vol. 4 No. 25 (1852): 304–306.
"The object of the present communication is to call attention to the remarkable consequences which follow
from Carnot's proposition, established as it is on a new foundation, in the dynamical theory of heat; that there
is an absolute waste of mechanical energy available to man, when heat is allowed to pass from one body to
another at a lower temperature, by any means not fulfilling his criterion of a "perfect thermo dynamic engine".
As it is most certain that Creative Power alone can either call into existence or annihilate mechanical energy,
the "waste" referred to cannot be annihilation, but must be some transformation of energy. To explain the
nature of this transformation, it is convenient, in the first place, to divide stores of mechanical energy into two
classes — statical and dynamical. A quantity of weights at a height, ready to descend and do work when
wanted, an electrified body, a quantity of fuel, contain stores of mechanical energy of the statical kind.
Masses of matter in motion, a volume of space through which undulations of light or radiant heat are passing
a body having thermal motions among its particles (that is not infinitely cold), contain stores of mechanical
energy of the dynamical kind."
The term "kinetic energy" first appeared in an article by Kelvin (then William Thomson) and Peter Guthrie Tait
in the magazine Good Words — a magazine with a largely religious readership. Thomson incorporated several
quotations from the King James Version of the Bible. Energy. William Thomson and Peter Guthrie Tait. Good
Words (October 1862): 601–607.

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