Energy transfers
James Stewart explains the different types of energy stores and transfers
The capacity for doing work. can remain in the same store for millions of years before it is transferred, sometimes just for a fraction of a second. Energy transfers happen all the time - whenever a An object or group of objects. changes, there is a change in the way some or all of the energy is stored.
Image caption, A swinging pirate ship ride at a theme park
A kinetic energy store is transferred to a gravitational energy store
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Transferring energy
In each of these examples energy is transferred by one of the following four types of energy transfer:
- mechanical work - a force moving an object through a distance
- electrical work - charges moving due to a potential difference
- heating - due to temperature difference caused electrically or by chemical reaction
- radiation - energy transferred as a wave, eg light and infrared - the Sun emits light radiation and infrared radiation
Doing 'work' is the scientific way of saying that energy has been transferred. For example, a grazing cow, a firing catapult and a boiling kettle are all doing 'work' because energy is being transferred from one store to another.
