PHYSICS 1A03 Lecture 39: Lesson 39

• School: McMaster University
• Department: Physics
• Course: PHYSICS 1A03
• Professor: Waldemar Okon

Document Summary

You"ve probably heard of kinetic energy in previous courses using the following definition and formula Any object that is moving has kinetic energy. We"re going to keep on using that basic formula, but we do need to clear up the definition a little bit. What is any object : any object just refers to anything that we can measure as having a mass, this covers everything from small subatomic particles like electrons all the way up to galaxies. When they say moving we need to ask moving relative to what? . This is true relative to the reference frame of the room you"re in. You need to make sure that you are always sure about what your measurements are being taken in relation to. Most of the time we measure stuff relative to the surface of the earth, so things are easier, but be careful.