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Energy (from Ancient Greek ἐνέργεια (enérgeia) 'activity') is the quantitative property that is transferred to a body or to a physical system, recognizable in the performance of work and in the form of heat and light.
The law of conservation of energy states that the total energy is constant in any process. Energy may change in form or be transferred from one system to another, but the total remains the same. When all forms of energy are considered, conservation of energy is written in equation form as.
Energy is an abstract scalar quantity associated with motion (kinetic energy) or arrangement (potential energy). Energy is not measured, it is computed.
Concepts of work, kinetic energy and potential energy are discussed; these concepts are combined with the work-energy theorem to provide a convenient means of analyzing an object or system of objects moving between an initial and final state.
Review the units of work, energy, force, and distance. Use the equations for mechanical energy and work to show what is work and what is not. Make it clear why holding something off the ground or carrying something over a level surface is not work in the scientific sense.
However, the conservation of mechanical energy, in one of the forms in Equation 8.12 or Equation 8.13, is a fundamental law of physics and applies to any system. You just have to include the kinetic and potential energies of all the particles, and the work done by all the non-conservative forces acting on them.
To answer these questions, you can use the definition of kinetic energy in Equation \(\ref{7.6}\). You also have to look up the mass of a neutron.
