What are three examples of how energy can be converted from one form to another?
1 Answer
This is a quite complicated question but certainly a nice one:
Consider, for example, a bricklayer:
He picks up a brick from the ground and lifts it to a certain height and in doing this he transforms Chemical Energy (stored into his muscles) into Potential Energy ("stored" into the position of the brick relative to the ground).
But now the brick slips and fall down to the ground; Potential Energy is transformed into Kinetic Energy ("stored" into the movement of the object that moves with a certain velocity) and hits the ground.
Hitting the ground, Kinetic Energy is transformed into Sound Energy (stored into the air variations of pressure) and Internal Energy (the surface gets hotter and energy is stored into the movement of the molecules of the material).
A wonderful “Energy Transformator” that you can always take with you is a Pendulum:
This is a little device that when in movement continuously transforms Potential Energy (at a maximum in A) into Kinetic Energy (at a maximum in B) and vice versa when swinging back and forth. Not only this, energy is also transformed into Internal Energy through friction in C leading to (after a certain amount of time) to completely stop your movement (you used the initial energy to “heat” point C).
