0.21 Phy1190: energy -- kinetic and mechanical energy

Table of contents

• Preface
  • General
  • Prerequisites
  • Supplemental material
• General background information
  • Kinetic energy
  • Mechanical energy
  • Total mechanical energy
• Sample calculations
  • Kinetic energy
  • Mechanical energy
• Do the calculations
• Resources
• Miscellaneous

Preface

General

This module is part of a book (or collection) designed to make physics concepts accessible to blind students. The collection is intended to supplement but not to replace thetextbook in an introductory course in high school or college physics.

This module explains kinetic and mechanical energy in a format that is accessible to blind students.

Prerequisites

In addition to an Internet connection and a browser, you will need the following tools (as a minimum) to work through the exercises in these modules:

• A graph board for plotting graphs and vector diagrams ( (External Link) ).
• A protractor for measuring angles ( (External Link) ).
• An audio screen reader that is compatible with your operating system, such as the NonVisual Desktop Access program (NVDA), which is freelyavailable at (External Link) .
• A refreshable Braille display capable of providing a line by line tactile output of information displayed on the computer monitor ( (External Link) ).
• A device to create Braille labels. Will be used to label graphs constructed on the graph board.

The minimum prerequisites for understanding the material in these modules include:

• A good understanding of algebra.
• An understanding of the use of a graph board for plotting graphs and vector diagrams ( (External Link) ).
• An understanding of the use of a protractor for measuring angles ( (External Link) ).
• A basic understanding of the use of sine, cosine, and tangent from trigonometry ( (External Link) ).
• An introductory understanding of JavaScript programming ( (External Link) and (External Link) ).
• An understanding of all of the material covered in the earlier modules in this collection.

Supplemental material

I recommend that you also study the other lessons in my extensive collection of online programming tutorials. You will find a consolidated index at www.DickBaldwin.com .

General background information

In an earlier module, you learned about two forms of potential energy:

• gravitational potential energy
• elastic potential energy

In this module, you will learn about kinetic energy and mechanical energy.

Kinetic energy

Review regarding gravitational potential energy

Recall that gravitational potential energy is energy possessed by an object due to its distance from the center of the earth. Gravitational potential energyis driven by the attraction between the earth and all objects on the earth.

Review regarding elastic potential energy

Elastic potential energy is energy possessed by objects that have been deformed within their elastic limits. Elastic potential energy is driven by adesire of those deformed objects to return to their non-deformed state of equilibrium.

Kinetic energy

Kinetic energy is energy possessed by an object because of its motion. Kinetic energy is driven by the tendency of a moving object to continue movingat the same velocity. When an object is in motion, something earlier did work on the object to cause it to attain its velocity and force will be required to cause it to change its velocity.