When You Do Work You Give it Energy! Holly Beech Professor Evans SCI 110 Holly Beech Professor Evans SCI 110 31 January 2010 Whenever You Do Work You Give It Energy How would one know that working creates energy? Well the definition of energy might give a clue. “Energy can be defined as the ability to do work” (Tillery, Enger, and Ross, 2008, p. 59). If one were to think about this statement unscientifically, it might evoke the picture of some one being to tired, having no energy, or being wide awake and, full of energy, to do work.
The main question though, would be: When ever you do work, you give it energy, how would one know for sure that this is a true statement? This will be answered through the detailed examination of energy and work. Again we know the name given to something able to do work is energy. Work and energy have the same units of measurement. Energy as well as power and force are often confusing to people. Force is when there is a pull or push on an object or body. The amount of work can be determined depending on the strength of the force used and how far in which it was moved.
The measurement of power is the rate at which work is done. Power can also be described as the rate at which energy is transformed. Energy can be broken into two different types. Often called stored energy potential energy represents work that has already been done. A book lying on the top shelf of a book case has potential energy and so does a fully stocked soda machine. If the book were to fall off the shelf, or a soda shoots into the dispenser, the potential energy become kinetic energy. Nothing can move with out energy, and the energy of movement is kinetic.
The book on the shelf had to be placed in that position and the soda machine had to be stocked. The weight of the book, the force, and the distance of the shelf, and all of the motions needed to reload a soda machine equals work. W=Fd. The work it took to load the soda can, created potential energy, and when the soda is purchased it is released to move to the dispenser opening, creating kinetic energy, energy in motion. Meaning to move, the word kinetic finds its roots in the Greek language. A high speed train or an electron in a TV tube exhibits energy that is kinetic. Changes in energy.
Energy is ever changing from a potential state to the kinetic state and back again. The universe is full of changes in energy. Every change that is made represents some change of energy from one form into another form. Scientists call this process the transformation of energy. For example let us analyze what happens when a child shoots a paper clip with a rubber band. When they pull the band back, the potential energy in the child is changed to potential energy in the stretched rubber band. When they let go of the band, the potential energy of the rubber band is changed to kinetic energy of the slung paper clip.
How this can be related to work is simple. The child pulled on the rubber band, exerting a force. They pulled the rubber band to a particular distance, thus creating the force times distance equation that creates work. As stated before the work is directly related to the energy, because the child used work, and energy to sling the paper clip across a room. Thus when a person does work they create energy. Reference List Ross, Frederick C. , Enger, Eldon D. , Tillery, Bill W. (2008). Integrated Science. Boston, MA. The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc.
