Mechanical Energy

Information about Mechanical Energy

In physics, mechanical energy describes the potential energy and kinetic energy present in the components of a mechanical system.

Related concepts

When a given sum of mechanical energy is transferred (such as when throwing a ball, lifting a box, crushing a can, or stirring a beverage) it is said that this amount mechanical work has been done. Both mechanical energy and mechanical work are measured in the same units as energy in general. It is usually said that a component of a system has a certain amount of "mechanical energy" (i.e. it is a state function), whereas "mechanical work" describes the amount of mechanical energy a component has gained or lost.

The conservation of mechanical energy is a principle which states that under certain conditions, the total mechanical energy of a system is constant. This rule does not hold when mechanical energy is converted to other forms, such as chemical, nuclear, or electromagnetic. However, the principle of general conservation of energy is so far an unbroken rule of physics - as far as we know, energy cannot be created or destroyed, only changed in form.

Simplifying assumptions

Scientists often make simplifying assumptions to make calculations about how mechanical systems behave. For example, instead of calculating the mechanical energy separately for each of the billions of molecules in a soccer ball, it is easier to treat the entire ball as one object. This means that only two numbers (one for kinetic mechanical energy, and one for potential mechanical energy) are needed for each dimension (for example, up/down, north/south, east/west) under consideration.

To calculate the energy of a system without any simplifying assumptions would require examining the state of all elementary particles and considering all four fundamental interactions. This is usually only done for very small systems, such as those studied in particle physics.

Distinguished from other types of energy

The classification of energy into different "types" often follows the boundaries of the fields of study in the natural sciences.

Chemical energy, the kind of potential energy stored in chemical bonds; studied in chemistry
Nuclear energy, energy stored in interactions between the particles in the atomic nucleus; studied in nuclear physics
Electromagnetic energy, in the form of electric charges, magnetic fields, and photons; from the study of electromagnetism
Various forms of energy in quantum mechanics; for example, the energy levels of electrons in an atom

In certain cases, it can be unclear what counts as "mechanical" energy. For example, is the energy stored in the structure of a crystal "mechanical" or "chemical"? Scientists generally use these "types" as convenient labels which clearly distinguish between different phenomena. It is not scientifically important to decide what is "mechanical" energy and what is "chemical". In these cases, usually there is a more specific name for the phenomenon in question. For example, in considering two bonded atoms, there are energy components from vibrational motion, from angular motions, from the electrical charge on the nuclei, secondary electromagnetic considerations like the Van der Waals force, and quantum mechanical contributions concerning the energy state of the electron shells.

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Energy Information

Physics is the science of matter^[1] and its motion^[2]^[3], as well as space and time^[4]^[5] —the science that deals with concepts such as force, energy, mass, and charge.
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Potential energy can be thought of as energy stored within a physical system. This energy can be released or converted into other forms of energy, including kinetic energy.
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kinetic energy of an object is the extra energy which it possesses due to its motion. It is defined as the work needed to accelerate a body of a given mass from rest to its current velocity.
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In physics, mechanical work is the amount of energy transferred by a force. Like energy, it is a scalar quantity, with SI units of joules. Heat conduction is not considered to be a form of work, since there is no macroscopically measurable force, only microscopic forces occurring
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energy (from the Greek ενεργός, energos, "active, working")^[1] is a scalar physical quantity that is a property of objects and systems of objects which is conserved by nature.
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In thermodynamics, a state function, or state quantity, is a property of a system that depends only on the current state of the system, not on the way in which the system got to that state. A state function describes the equilibrium state of a system.
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conservation of energy states that the total amount of energy in any closed system remains constant but can be recreated, although it may change forms, e.g. friction turns kinetic energy into thermal energy.
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dimension (Latin, "measured out") is a parameter or measurement required to define the characteristics of an object—i.e., length, width, and height or size and shape.
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For the novel, see .

In particle physics, an elementary particle or fundamental particle is a not known to have substructure; that is, it is not known to be made up of smaller particles.
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A fundamental interaction or fundamental force is a mechanism by which particles interact with each other, and which cannot be explained in terms of another interaction. Every observed physical phenomenon can be explained by these interactions.
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Particle physics is a branch of physics that studies the elementary constituents of matter and radiation, and the interactions between them. It is also called "high energy physics"
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A chemical bond is the physical process responsible for the attractive interactions between atoms and molecules, and that which confers stability to diatomic and polyatomic chemical compounds.
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This article concerns the energy stored in the nuclei of atoms; for the use of nuclear fission as a power source, see Nuclear power.

Nuclear energy was first discovered accidentally by French physicist Henri Becquerel in 1896, when he found that
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The nucleus of an atom is the very small dense region of an atom, in its center consisting of nucleons (protons and neutrons). The size (diameter) of the nucleus is in the range of 1.
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Nuclear physics is the branch of physics concerned with the nucleus of the atom. It has three main aspects: probing the fundamental particles (protons and neutrons) and their interactions, classifying and interpreting the properties of nuclei, and providing technological advances.
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Electromagnetic (EM) radiation is a self-propagating wave in space with electric and magnetic components. These components oscillate at right angles to each other and to the direction of propagation, and are in phase with each other.
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Photon

Photons emitted in a coherent beam from a laser
Composition: Elementary particle
Family: Boson
Group: Gauge boson
Interaction: Electromagnetic
Theorized: Albert Einstein (1905–17)
Symbol: or
Mass: 0^[1]
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Electromagnetism is the physics of the electromagnetic field: a field which exerts a force on particles that possess the property of electric charge, and is in turn affected by the presence and motion of those particles.
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quantum mechanics is the study of the relationship between energy quanta (radiation) and matter, in particular that between valence shell electrons and photons. Quantum mechanics is a fundamental branch of physics with wide applications in both experimental and theoretical physics.
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energy levels are possible. The term energy level is most commonly used in reference to the electron configuration in atoms or molecules. In other words, the energy spectrum can be quantized (see continuous spectrum for the more general case).
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Electron

Theoretical estimates of the electron density for the first few hydrogen atom electron orbitals shown as cross-sections with color-coded probability density
Composition: Elementary particle
Family: Fermion
Group: Lepton
Generation: First
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van der Waals force is sometimes used as a synonym for the totality of non-covalent forces (also known as intermolecular forces). These forces, which act between stable molecules, are weak compared to those appearing in chemical bonding.
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