The Conservation of Energy

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The Conservation of Energy

Physics Essay: The Conservation of Energy

Since the beginning of time, energy has pervaded our earth. These days we rely on it to advance in our technological developments. We also need energy for a variety of other things such as: to keep our bodies alive and healthy, to run our machines and other technical devices, we also rely on energy to keep warm in winter and cool in summer.

Energy is the ability to do work. People and other things can run out of energy (e.g. a marathon runner) in which case they can no longer have the ability to do work. In a mechanical situation, if a machine has energy it has the ability to apply a force to another body. There are many different forms of energy and there are many different places by which energy can be gathered. Forms of energy include: Potential energy, kinetic energy, gravitational potential energy, elastic potential energy and there are many more. Energy can be gathered in many ways using our natural recourses from the environment, for example: solar energy (from the sun) and hydroelectricity (where electricity is gathered by rushing water)

Hydroelectricity is when electricity is generated by rotating coils of wire (rotors) between the poles of a magnet. The rotors are turned by rushing water falling over them. In a hydroelectric plant, water in usually stored in a damn. As the water falls down and rushes over the vanes connected to the rotors it looses gravitational potential energy and ga...

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