Energy

Topics

The mental models this world builds

Each one is a card in the library, taught by one of the topics above.

• Work is force times distance, only along the motion
• Power is how fast the bill is paid
• Every machine pays a thermal tax
• Height banks energy; motion carries it
• Energy changes stores; the total never changes
• Missing energy is thermal energy
• Temperature is a reading; heat is energy moving
• Each degree has a price per kilogram
• A change of state costs energy with no rise
• Same protons, different neutrons: isotopes
• Every half-life halves what is left
• Halving never reaches zero
• No single source settles it
• Record as you read
• Check the fact and the logic separately

What you will be able to explain

• Say when a force does work, and how much, from the force along the motion and the distance.
• Tell work from power, and energy from temperature.
• Keep an energy ledger: height, motion, warmth, and a total that never changes.
• Price the energy to warm something, and the different price to melt or boil it.
• Read a half-life as a fixed fraction, and weigh a source before weighing its claim.

Work is the bridge from forces: a force along a motion hands energy over. Conservation is the rule above every store. Heat is energy counted inside matter; the nucleus is the steepest exchange rate there is. The research topic is how claims about energy get judged.

Labs and games

Pure play. Nothing here is recorded, ever.

• LabEfficiency LabFollow 1000 J through a chain; count the heat tax at every stage
• GameEnergy LedgerA dropped ball, a braking car, a kettle — say where the energy went, and how much