PHYS114 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: James Prescott Joule, International System Of Units, Headon
9 Oct 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Document Summary
Energy is interesting because although we can never see it in itself, we can observe its effects. We also know that despite being invisible and abstract, energy"s sum total can never change as long as we"re observing it within a closed system. This observation is the basis of the law of the conservation of. As a force, energy = force x displacement = (kg x m/s 2 )(m) = joules (j). It has no directionality and is therefore not a vector. Different types of energy (kinetic, potential, heat, light, sound, etc. ) can be calculated in different ways, but remember that in a closed system the sum total of all of these forms of energy will be constant. Note that the formula for joules is based on the base si units we previously discussed. Legend has it that the law of the conservation of energy was conceived by james joule when observing a waterfall.
