Examples include a pendulum, a ball tossed up in the air, a skier sliding down a hill and the generation of electricity inside a nuclear power plant.
The principle of the conservation of energy says that energy within an isolated system is neither created nor destroyed, it simply changes from one type of energy to another.
The most difficult part in conservation of energy problems is identifying your system .
In all of these examples, we will ignore the small amount of energy lost to fiction between the object and air molecules (air resistance or drag)
Examples:
A pendulum:
As the pendulum swings down:
gravitational potential energy of the pendulum #-># kinetic energy of the pendulum
As the pendulum swings up:
kinetic energy of the pendulum #-># gravitational potential energy of the pendulumA ball tossed up in the air:
During the throw:
Chemical energy from your muscles #-># kinetic energy of the ball
As the ball reaches its peak:
kinetic energy of the ball #-># gravitational potential energy of the ball
As the ball falls down:
gravitational potential energy of the ball #-># kinetic energy of the ballA skier slides down a hill:
gravitational potential energy of the skier #->#
kinetic energy of the skier + thermal energy of the snow and skies (from friction)A compressed spring launches a ball in a pinball game:
Elastic potential energy of the spring #->#
kinetic energy of the ballInside of a nuclear power plant:
nuclear energy (from the decay of uranium) #->#
thermal energy of water #->#
kinetic energy of a turbine #-> #
electrical energy + thermal energy (from friction in the turbine and transmission lines)
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Hint: The law of conservation of energy states that energy can neither be created nor destroyed but it can only be converted from one form of energy of another form of energy. This means that an object or a system always has the same amount of energy until and unless it is added from a foreign body.
Complete step by step answer:
According to the law of conservation of energy, energy can be neither created nor destroyed. It can be transformed from one form to another
like thermal energy to electrical energy, mechanical energy to thermal energy and so on.
Daily life examples of Conservation of energy:
1) Human metabolism, the food we take gives us energy which we use to move, work, exercise, play.
2) When a moving car hits another car which is parked to make it move, energy of the moving car is transferred from the moving car to the parked car.
3) Water is used to produce electricity. Water falls from the sky, converting potential energy to
kinetic energy. This energy is then used to rotate the turbine of a generator to produce electricity. In this process, the potential energy of water in a dam can be turned into kinetic energy which can then become electric energy. So, one form of energy is converting into another form and this process continues.
4) When kicking a football which is resting on the ground, energy is transferred from the player’s body (leg) to the resting football, setting it in motion.
5) When we play piano,
our fingers hitting piano keys transfer energy from our hands to the piano keys.
Note:The law of conservation states that certain physical properties (i.e., measurable quantities like mass, energy) do not change in the course of time within an isolated physical system.