Energy

✓ Energy can be stored in many different ways.

✓ Energy can be transferred from one energy
store to another.
✓ Energy cannot be destroyed.
✓ Movement energy is also called kinetic energy.

Energy and food

The food we eat supplies our bodies with energy.
We measure the amount of energy in food using units
called kilojoules.

✓ The scientific unit for

energy is the joule (J).
✓ The energy in food is
often shown in kilojoules
(1 kJ = 1000 J).
✓ A person’s daily energy
requirement depends on
their age, size, and level of
physical activity.

Energy stores
✓ Energy can be stored in many different ways,
including thermal energy, chemical energy,
gravitational potential energy, kinetic
energy, elastic energy, and nuclear energy.
✓ An energy transfer is the movement of energy
from one store to another.

Energy transfers
When you turn on a light, ride a bike, cook a
meal, or do anything at all, you transfer energy
from one energy store to another. Energy transfers
make everything happen.

✓ Energy can be transferred from

one energy store to another.
✓ The total amount of energy in an
isolated system is not changed by
an energy transfer. This is known as
the law of conservation of energy.
✓ Energy can be transferred in
many ways: by heat, forces,
electricity, radiation, and sound.
Renewable energy resources
✓ Sources of energy that will never run
out are called renewable.
✓ Renewable energy resources
contribute far less to climate change
than fossil fuels.
✓ Sources of renewable energy include
solar, biofuels, wind, hydroelectric,
tidal, wave, and geothermal.

Nonrenewable Energy
✓ Nonrenewable energy
comes from energy
resources that will run out.
✓ Most of our energy comes
from nonrenewable
sources.
✓ Burning fossil fuels pollutes
the atmosphere and causes
climate change.

Climate change
✓ The use of fossil fuels as an
energy resource releases
carbon dioxide (CO2) into
the atmosphere.
✓ Rising levels of atmospheric
CO2 and other greenhouse
gases cause climate
change through the
greenhouse effect.

The greenhouse effect

The main cause of climate change is pollution of the atmosphere
with greenhouse gases, such as CO2 from fossil fuels and methane
from agriculture. These gases absorb heat radiated from Earth’s
surface and reradiate it into the air, making the atmosphere warmer
(much as glass traps warmth in a greenhouse). Without any
greenhouse effect, Earth would be too cold for most life.
However, human activity is making the effect too strong.
Trends in energy use
✓ The use of fossil fuels has
increased dramatically in
the last 200 years.
✓ The use of fossil fuels
is one of the causes of
climate change.
✓ Many countries are now
trying to reduce their
use of fossil fuels and
increase their use of
renewable energy.

Efficiency
When you turn on a light, not all the energy is transferred to
the surroundings by light—some of it is transferred to the air
by heating. This is wasted energy. An efficient device is one
that wastes only a small percentage of the energy it transfers.

Heat transfers
Why do hot drinks cool down? Stores of thermal
energy (heat) never stay in one place—the energy
always transfers from hot things to colder things.
These transfers can happen in different ways.

✓ Heat always transfers from hot

objects to colder objects until
they are at the same temperature
(thermal equilibrium).
✓ Thermal energy is transferred
in three ways: by conduction,
convection, and radiation.

Heating water
When water is heated on a gas stove, energy
is transferred in three ways: by conduction,
convection, and radiation.

Radiation
When you put your hand near a hot teapot, you can
feel its heat warm your skin. That’s because your skin
can sense something your eyes can’t see: infrared
radiation. All objects emit infrared radiation, but the
hotter an object is, the more radiation it gives out.
✓ Hotter objects emit more infrared
radiation than cooler objects.
✓ When infrared radiation strikes an
object, it transfers energy to its
thermal energy store.
✓ Matte black surfaces are better
at absorbing and emitting
infrared radiation than shiny
or white surfaces.

Absorbers and reflectors

The amount of energy an object absorbs
from infrared radiation depends on the color
and texture of its surface. Matte (nonshiny)
and black surfaces are good at absorbing and
emitting infrared radiation. White or shiny
objects, however, reflect radiation, so they
absorb relatively little thermal energy.

Conduction
Metal objects often feel cold to the touch because
metals are good at transferring energy away from
your body. The spread of thermal energy through
physical contact is called conduction.

✓ Conduction is the transfer of energy

by touch.
✓ Metals are good thermal conductors
because the particles are arranged in
a lattice and because electrons can
move freely.
✓ Materials that are poor thermal
conductors are called insulators.
Convection
Convection is the transfer of thermal energy by
currents moving in a fluid (a liquid or a gas). When
a region of air or water is heated, it becomes less
dense than the surrounding fluid and rises,
creating a convection current.

✓ Convection is the transfer of heat by

currents moving in a fluid.
✓ Convection occurs because heating
makes parts of a fluid less dense than
the surrounding fluid.
✓ Thermals are rising columns of warm
air produced by convection.

Kinetic and
potential energy
✓ The faster an object moves,
or the greater its mass,
the greater its store of
kinetic energy (KE).
✓ The higher an object is,
or the greater its mass,
the greater its store of
gravitational potential
energy (GPE).
✓ When a roller coaster
accelerates downhill,
energy is transferred from
its store of GPE to its store
of KE.
Transferring energy by forces
It takes energy to power a car, make a plane fly, or
ride a bike. The energy transferred when a force
moves an object is called work.

✓ The energy transferred when a force

moves an object is called work.
✓ As work done is a measure of
energy, the units are joules (J).
✓ Work done equals force multiplied
by distance moved in the direction
of the force.

Energy and power

Power is a measure of how quickly energy
is transferred (how quickly work is done).
The more energy transferred per second,
the greater the power.

✓ Power is a measure of how

quickly energy is transferred
(how quickly work is done).
✓ Power = energy transferred ÷
time taken.
✓ We measure power in watts (W).
1 W = 1 J/s.