Potential Energy and the Law of Conservation of Energy

Today in a heated and somewhat violent Physics class, we learned about potential energy and the law of conservation of energy. We started off by finishing the questions on kinetic energy we did the day before on page 290 #1-4

Then we read pages 291 and 292 in the textbook and answered questions about it.

From the reading we learned some new definitions:

Potential Energy- Energy that is stored and capable of being transformed into other types of energy.

Law of Conservation of Energy- Energy is not created or destroyed in any interaction, but is merely transformed from one type of energy into another.

Mr.Banow used the textbook as per usual to show us that when he holds the book above the floor and the book is not moving it has potential energy.

After the reading we moved on to learn about the most common type of potential energy and the one we will use most often in Physics 30 and that is Gravitational Potential Energy.

Gravitational Potential Energy- the energy stored as a result of the vertical position (height) of an object.

The formula to calculate Gravitational Potential Energy is Eg=mgh where:

Eg is Gravitational potential energy (J)

m is mass

g is acceleration due to gravity

h is change in height relative to the reference point

Ex.1

A 25.0kg box is lifted from the floor to a ridiculously large desk that is a whopping 1.87m above the floor.

a) What is the gravitational potential energy relative to the floor?

m=25kg

h=1.87m

g=9.8m/s^2

Eg=?

Eg=mgh

=(25kg)(9.8m/s^2)(1.87m)

=458J

Jeren (soon to be four eyes) Tuchscherererererererererererer is next