{"id":13074,"date":"2014-02-07T16:12:01","date_gmt":"2014-02-07T16:12:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mometrix.com\/academy\/?page_id=13074"},"modified":"2025-12-11T12:34:48","modified_gmt":"2025-12-11T18:34:48","slug":"energy","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.mometrix.com\/academy\/energy\/","title":{"rendered":"Energy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\t\t\t<div id=\"mmDeferVideoEncompass__Jo55uikE8k\" style=\"position: relative;\">\n\t\t\t<picture>\n\t\t\t\t<source srcset=\"https:\/\/www.mometrix.com\/academy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/circle-play-duotone.webp\" type=\"image\/webp\">\n\t\t\t\t<source srcset=\"https:\/\/www.mometrix.com\/academy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/circle-play-duotone.png\" type=\"image\/jpeg\"> \n\t\t\t\t<img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"eager\" id=\"videoThumbnailImage__Jo55uikE8k\" data-source-videoID=\"_Jo55uikE8k\" src=\"https:\/\/www.mometrix.com\/academy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/circle-play-duotone.png\" alt=\"Energy Video\" height=\"720\" width=\"1280\" class=\"size-full\" data-matomo-title = \"Energy\">\n\t\t\t<\/picture>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<style>img#videoThumbnailImage__Jo55uikE8k:hover {cursor:pointer;} img#videoThumbnailImage__Jo55uikE8k {background-size:contain;background-image:url(\"https:\/\/www.mometrix.com\/academy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Energy-thumb.webp\");}<\/style>\n\t\t\t<script defer>\n\t\t\t  jQuery(\"img#videoThumbnailImage__Jo55uikE8k\").click(function() {\n\t\t\t\tlet videoId = jQuery(this).attr(\"data-source-videoID\");\n\t\t\t\tlet helpTag = '<div id=\"mmDeferVideoYTMessage__Jo55uikE8k\" style=\"display: none;position: absolute;top: -24px;width: 100%;text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-style: italic;font-size: small;border-top: 1px solid #fc0;\">Having trouble? <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v='+videoId+'\" target=\"_blank\">Click here to watch on YouTube.<\/a><\/span><\/div>';\n\t\t\t\tlet tag = document.createElement(\"iframe\");\n\t\t\t\ttag.id = \"yt\" + videoId;\n\t\t\t\ttag.src = \"https:\/\/www.youtube-nocookie.com\/embed\/\" + videoId + \"?autoplay=1&controls=1&wmode=opaque&rel=0&egm=0&iv_load_policy=3&hd=0&enablejsapi=1\";\n\t\t\t\ttag.frameborder = 0;\n\t\t\t\ttag.allow = \"autoplay; fullscreen\";\n\t\t\t\ttag.width = this.width;\n\t\t\t\ttag.height = this.height;\n\t\t\t\ttag.setAttribute(\"data-matomo-title\",\"Energy\");\n\t\t\t\tjQuery(\"div#mmDeferVideoEncompass__Jo55uikE8k\").html(tag);\n\t\t\t\tjQuery(\"div#mmDeferVideoEncompass__Jo55uikE8k\").prepend(helpTag);\n\t\t\t\tsetTimeout(function(){jQuery(\"div#mmDeferVideoYTMessage__Jo55uikE8k\").css(\"display\", \"block\");}, 2000);\n\t\t\t  });\n\t\t\t  \n\t\t\t<\/script>\n\t\t\n<p><script>\nfunction XHo_Function() {\n  var x = document.getElementById(\"XHo\");\n  if (x.style.display === \"none\") {\n    x.style.display = \"block\";\n  } else {\n    x.style.display = \"none\";\n  }\n}\n<\/script><\/p>\n<div class=\"moc-toc hide-on-desktop hide-on-tablet\">\n<div><button onclick=\"XHo_Function()\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.mometrix.com\/academy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/toc2.svg\" width=\"16\" height=\"16\" alt=\"show or hide table of contents\"><\/button><\/p>\n<p>On this page<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<nav id=\"XHo\" style=\"display:none;\">\n<ul>\n<li class=\"toc-h2\"><a href=\"#Energy_as_a_Scalar_Quantity\" class=\"smooth-scroll\">Energy as a Scalar Quantity<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"toc-h2\"><a href=\"#Energy_as_a_Force\" class=\"smooth-scroll\">Energy as a Force<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/nav>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"accordion\"><input id=\"transcript\" type=\"checkbox\" class=\"spoiler_button\" \/><label for=\"transcript\">Transcript<\/label>\n<div class=\"spoiler\" id=\"transcript-spoiler\">\n<h2><span id=\"Energy_as_a_Scalar_Quantity\" class=\"m-toc-anchor\"><\/span>Energy as a Scalar Quantity<\/h2>\n<p>\nWe can define energy as the capacity to do work, and we could further define energy as a <strong>scalar quantity<\/strong>. When I say it&#8217;s a scalar quantity that means it\u2019s kind of like mass, it has a particular number and unit associated with it, but it doesn&#8217;t matter in which direction the energy was applied.<\/p>\n<p>Now a unit for energy is the <strong>joule<\/strong>, (which actually has a little j, but then when we abbreviate it has a capital J) so to give you an idea of the unit joule, 1 joule is the amount of energy used to apply a force of 1 newton over a distance of 1 meter. Notice here that it applies both force and distance to come up with one single unit.<\/p>\n<p>Now you may be thinking, &#8220;I said this was a scalar quantity, so direction didn&#8217;t matter,&#8221; well, that&#8217;s true because say you&#8217;re pushing a box, and you give it 1 Newton of force, it does matter how far you pushed it, but it doesn&#8217;t matter whether you push that box north, south, east, or west.<\/p>\n<p>That&#8217;s what we mean when we say it\u2019s a scalar quantity, matters how hard you pushed it, but it doesn&#8217;t matter in which direction you pushed it. Now some other units for energy are watts, calories, there&#8217;s several British thermal units for energy, kilowatt-hours, which is used specifically for electricity.<\/p>\n<h2><span id=\"Energy_as_a_Force\" class=\"m-toc-anchor\"><\/span>Energy as a Force<\/h2>\n<p>\nNow, energy and work represent a <strong>force<\/strong> acting over a distance. I&#8217;m going to say that again, it represents a force acting over a distance. When we think about work, we may think about just doing some type of physical activity, or going to the place of work.<\/p>\n<p>Well, we have a physics definition for work and that means to move something over a certain distance, so if I pushed on this wall, and I push really hard, and I pushed all day, but the wall never moved, I didn&#8217;t do any work by the physics definition.<\/p>\n<p>Now if I were to look at a big box on the ground and think, &#8220;I want to move it across this parking lot,&#8221; so I just push and push on it and slide it across the ground, now I&#8217;m doing work because I&#8217;m moving that box, you have to move something. Remember I said energy, (or the unit we use for energy, which is the joule) is 1 newton over a distance of 1 meter.<\/p>\n<p>Notice here that distance is important because if I apply force of 1 newton on the box for 1 meter I did quite a bit of work, but if I apply 1 newton of force over a distance of 2 meters I&#8217;m doing even more work because I&#8217;m pushing it even further. I used more work, and energy is the capacity to do work, it&#8217;s the ability to do work.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s just like if you get a good night&#8217;s rest, and you eat a lot of food, then you&#8217;re going to have more energy to be able to do work than if you haven&#8217;t eaten anything in a while and if you&#8217;re pretty sleep-deprived, so you have more energy, you have more ability to do this work. If I push the box with a force of 1 newton over a distance of 2 meters, I use more energy than if I push the box with a force of 1 newton for only a distance of 1 meter, so you can see here the relationship between energy and work.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m going to draw a little bit of a box right here to talk about the relationship between energy and mass. We have an equation which is E equals m, a little o, c, squared. E is obviously energy, and then we have m which is mass, but in this case notice it has a little o, which stands for the mass of the object, and then finally we have c squared which is the speed of light in a vacuum (speed of light in a vacuum).<\/p>\n<p>That&#8217;s the way that you can relate energy to mass, so you&#8217;re looking at the mass of a particular object and then use the speed of light in a vacuum, which is going to be a constant, and you&#8217;re able to relate these two variables back and forth to each other. So again, energy is the capacity to do work.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":{"0":"post-13074","1":"page","2":"type-page","3":"status-publish","5":"page_category-physics-basics-videos","6":"page_category-health-promotion-and-maintenance","7":"page_category-work-videos","8":"page_type-video","9":"page_domain-science"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mometrix.com\/academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/13074","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mometrix.com\/academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mometrix.com\/academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mometrix.com\/academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mometrix.com\/academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13074"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.mometrix.com\/academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/13074\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":266224,"href":"https:\/\/www.mometrix.com\/academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/13074\/revisions\/266224"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mometrix.com\/academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13074"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}