Look at these images. All of them represent energy. What is energy?

Energy is the ability of a system to do work. That system may be batteries powering an electronic game system or windmills capturing wind energy to power a city. When an object or an organism does work, energy is transferred to another form. Work can be defined as the transfer of energy.

There are two main types of energy, potential energy and kinetic energy.

Click on the graphic below to learn more about potential and kinetic energy.

Potential energy is converted into kinetic energy. The following animation shows the relationship between potential and kinetic energy. Use the step feature to move the roller coaster from one location to the other. Pay close attention to the graph showing the amount of potential and kinetic energy.

Answer the following questions in your notes. Replay the animation if you need help.

1. At which point or points (1-6) was there the greatest amount of potential energy? Interactive popup. Assistance may be required.

   Check your Answer

   number one - the highest point
2. At which point (1-6) was there the least amount of kinetic energy? Interactive popup. Assistance may be required.

   Check your Answer

   number one - the highest point
3. At which point or points (1-6) was there the greatest amount of kinetic energy? Interactive popup. Assistance may be required.

   Check your Answer

   numbers two and five
4. At which point or points (1-6) was there the least amount of potential energy?Interactive popup. Assistance may be required.

   Check your Answer

   numbers two and five
5. Complete this statement by choosing the correct words to fill in the blanks.
   

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   Sources of images used for this section as they appear, top to bottom:

   • Sun, Coaching across Boarders
   • Windmills, Industrial Heaters
   • Nuclear power plant, Lehigh University
   • Solar Panels, Industrial Heaters
   • Tidal wave, The Guardian
   • Batteries, Zedomax