What is the principle of conservation of

energy?
In physics, the term conservation refers to something which doesn't change.
This means that the variable in an equation which represents a conserved
quantity is constant over time. It has the same value both before and after an
event.
There are many conserved quantities in physics. They are often remarkably
useful for making predictions in what would otherwise be very complicated
situations. In mechanics, there are three fundamental quantities which are
conserved. These are energy, momentum and angular momentum.
If you have looked at examples in other articles—for example, the kinetic energy
of charging elephants—then it may surprise you that energy is a conserved
quantity. After all, energy often changes in collisions. It turns out that there are
a couple of key qualifying statements we need to add:

 Energy, as we'll be discussing it in this article, refers to the total energy of

a system. As objects move around over time, the energy associated with
them—e.g., kinetic, gravitational potential, heat—might change forms, but
if energy is conserved, then the total will remain the same.
 Conservation of energy applies only to isolated systems. A ball rolling
across a rough floor will not obey the law of conservation of energy
because it is not isolated from the floor. The floor is, in fact, doing work on
the ball through friction. However, if we consider the ball and floor
together, then conservation of energy will apply. We would normally call
this combination the ball-floor system.

In mechanics problems, we are likely to encounter systems containing kinetic

energy (EKE_KEK), gravitational potential energy (UgU_gUg), elastic—spring—
potential energy (UsU_sUs), and heat (thermal energy) (EHE_HEH). Solving such
problems often begins by establishing conservation of energy in a system
between some initial time—subscript i—and at some later time—subscript f.
EKi+Ugi+Usi=EKf+Ugf+Usf+EHfE_\mathrm{Ki} + U_\mathrm{gi} +
U_\mathrm{si} = E_\mathrm{Kf} + U_\mathrm{gf} + U_\mathrm{sf} +
E_\mathrm{Hf}EKi+Ugi+Usi=EKf+Ugf+Usf+EHf
Which could be expanded out as:
12mvi2+mghi+12kxi2=12mvf2+mghf+12kxf2+EHf\frac{1}{2}mv_i^2 +
mgh_i + \frac{1}{2}kx_i^2 = \frac{1}{2}mv_f^2 + mgh_f + \frac{1}
{2}kx_f^2 + E_\mathrm{Hf}21mvi2+mghi+21kxi2=21mvf2+mghf+21
kxf2+EHf

What do we mean by system here?

 In physics, system is the suffix we give to a collection of objects that we choose
to model with our equations. If we are to describe the motion of an object using
conservation of energy, then the system should include the object of interest and
all other objects that it interacts with.
In practice, we always have to choose to ignore some interactions. When
defining a system, we are drawing a line around things we care about and things
we don't. The things we don't include are usually collectively termed the
environment. Ignoring some of the environment will inevitably make our
calculations less accurate. There is no indignity in doing this however. In fact,
being a good physicist is often as much about understanding the effects you
need to describe as it is about knowing which effects can be safely ignored.
Consider the problem of a person making a bungee jump from a bridge. At a
minimum, the system should include the jumper, bungee, and the Earth. A more
accurate calculation might include the air, which does work on the jumper via
drag, or air resistance. We could go further and include the bridge and its
foundation, but since we know that the bridge is much heavier than the jumper,
we can safely ignore this. We wouldn't expect the force of a decelerating bungee
jumper to have any significant effect on the bridge, especially if the bridge is
designed to bear the load of heavy vehicles.

There is always some tenuous level of interaction between even distant objects, so we need to choose the boundary of our system intelligently.

There is always some tenuous level of interaction between even distant objects,
so we need to choose the boundary of our system intelligently.

What is mechanical energy?

Mechanical energy, EME_MEM, is the sum of the potential energy and kinetic
energy in a system.
EM=EP+EK\boxed{E_\mathrm{M} = E_\mathrm{P} + E_\mathrm{K}}EM
=EP+EK
Only conservative forces like gravity and the spring force that have potential
energy associated with them. Nonconservative forces like friction and drag do
not. We can always get back the energy that we put into a system via a
conservative force. Energy transferred by nonconservative forces however is
difficult to recover. It often ends up as heat or some other form which is typically
outside the system—in other words, lost to the environment.
What this means in practice is that the special case of conservation of
mechanical energy is often more useful for making calculations than
conservation of energy in general. Conservation of mechanical energy only
applies when all forces are conservative. Luckily, there are many situations
where nonconservative forces are negligible, or at least a good approximation
can still be made when neglecting them.
How can conservation of energy describe
how objects move?
When energy is conserved, we can set up equations which equate the sum of the
different forms of energy in a system. We then may be able to solve the
equations for velocity, distance, or some other parameter on which the energy
depends. If we don't know enough of the variables to find a unique solution, then
it may still be useful to plot related variables to see where solutions lie.
Consider a golfer on the moon—gravitational acceleration 1.625 m/s 2^22—
striking a golf ball. By the way, Astronaut Alan Shepard actually did this. The ball
leaves the club at an angle of 45∘^\circ∘ to the lunar surface traveling at 20 m/s
both horizontally and vertically—total velocity 28.28 m/s. How high would the
golf ball go?
We begin by writing down the mechanical energy:
EM=12mv2+mghE_\mathrm{M} = \frac{1}{2} m v^2 + mghEM=21
mv2+mgh
Applying the principle of conservation of mechanical energy, we can solve for
the height hhh—note that the mass cancels out.
12mvi2=mghf+12mvf2\frac{1}{2} m v_i^2 = mgh_f+\frac{1}{2} m
v_f^221mvi2=mghf+21mvf2
h=12vi2−12vf2g=12(28.28 m/s)2−12(20 m/s)21.625 m/s2=123 m\begin
{aligned} h &= \frac{\frac{1}{2}v_i^2-\frac{1}{2}v_f^2}{g} \\
&=\frac{\frac{1}{2}(28.28~\mathrm{m/s})^2-\frac{1}{2}
(20~\mathrm{m/s})^2}{1.625~\mathrm{m/s^2}} \\ &=
123~\mathrm{m}\end{aligned}h=g21vi2−21vf2=1.625 m/s221(28.28 m
/s)2−21(20 m/s)2=123 m
[How did we know the final speed was 20 m/s?]
At the peak height, the vertical component of the velocity becomes zero. This
means the only component of velocity at the peak height is the horizontal
component. But since the horizontal component of the projectile doesn't change
during the flight, we can say that the horizontal component of the velocity—20
m/s—is equal to the total speed at the peak height.
As you can see, applying the principle of conservation of energy allows us to
quickly solve problems like this which would be more difficult if done only with
the kinematic equations.
Exercise 1: Suppose the ball had an unexpected collision with a nearby american
flag hoisted to a height of 2 m. How fast would it be traveling at the time of
collision?
[Show solution.]
12mvi2=mghf+12mvf2\frac{1}{2} m v_i^2 = mgh_f+\frac{1}{2} m
v_f^221mvi2=mghf+21mvf2
vf=v2i–2⋅g⋅h−−−−−−−−√=28.16 m/s
 Exercise 2: The image below shows a plot of the kinetic, gravitational potential
and mechanical energy over time during the flight of a small model rocket.
Points of interest such as maximum height, apogee, and the time of motor stop,
burnout, are noted on the plot. The rocket is subject to several conservative and
nonconservative forces over the course of the flight. Is there a time during the
flight when the rocket is subject to only conservative forces? Why?

Energy transfer during the flight of a small model rocket [1].

Energy transfer during the flight of a small model rocket [1].

[Show solution.]
The principle of conservation of mechanical energy tells us that if a system is
only subject to conservative forces then the mechanical energy is constant. This
is true for the period of the flight from 2.5 to 4 seconds. We can see that the
mechanical energy curve is close to flat during this time. During this time, the
rocket is coasting upwards—motor has stopped burning—but going slow enough
that the work being done by drag on the rocket is mostly negligible.

Why can perpetual motion machines never

work?
The perpetual motion machine is a concept for a machine which continues its
motion forever, without any reduction in speed. An endless variety of weird and
wonderful machines have been described over the years. They include pumps
said to run themselves via their own head of falling water, wheels which are said
to push themselves around by means of unbalanced masses, and many
variations of self-repelling magnets.
Though often interesting curiosities, such a machine has never been shown to be
perpetual, nor could it ever be. In fact, even if such a machine were to exist, it
wouldn't be very useful. It would have no ability to do work. Note that this differs
from the concept of the over-unity machine, which is said to output more than
100% of the energy put into it, in clear violation of the principle of conservation
of energy.
From the most basic principles of mechanics, there is nothing that strictly
makes the perpetual motion machine impossible. If a system could be fully
isolated from the environment and subject to only conservative forces, then
energy would be conserved and it would run forever. The problem is that in
reality, there is no way to completely isolate a system and energy is never
completely conserved within the machine.
It is possible today to make extremely low friction flywheels which rotate in a
vacuum for storing energy. Yet, they still lose energy and eventually spin down
when unloaded, some over a period of years [2]. The earth itself, rotating on its
axis in space is perhaps an extreme example of such a machine. Yet, because of
interactions with the moon, tidal friction, and other celestial bodies, it too is
gradually slowing. In fact, every couple of years, scientists have to add a leap
second to our record of time to account for variation in the length of day.

Attributions
[1] Figure made using OpenRocket 15.03. Custom expressions for calculating
energy detailed in openrocket documentation.
[2] Abbasi, Tasneem. Renewable Energy Sources: Their Impact On Global
Warming And Pollution. A.S.A., 2010. ISBN: 9788120339941