Lecture Notes: Kinetic and Potential Energy

Introduction

• Kinetic Energy: Energy possessed by a body due to its motion.
  • Examples:
    • A car traveling on the road
    • A plane flying in the sky
    • A person walking or running
  • Key Point: Faster movement results in greater kinetic energy.
  • Stops when the body comes to a standstill (e.g., car stops, person stops walking).

Potential Energy

• Definition: Energy stored in a body due to its position.
• Example with a Ball:
  • A ball thrown upwards has potential energy due to its height.
  • As the ball starts falling, potential energy converts into kinetic energy.
  • Higher position = more potential energy, leading to greater impact when hitting the ground.

Example with Slingshot

• A slingshot has stored energy due to its position and can transfer this to a projectile (e.g., a bird) as kinetic energy when released.
• The kinetic energy enables the projectile to exert force, such as breaking structures.

Exercise

• Question: Who has the greatest potential energy?
  • Answer: Bubbles has the most potential energy because she is positioned the highest from the ground.

Summary

• Potential Energy: Energy due to position (e.g., height from the ground).
  • Increases with greater height.
• Kinetic Energy: Energy due to motion.
  • Depends on speed of the object.

Conclusion

Understanding the transformation between potential and kinetic energy is crucial in explaining the behavior of moving and positioned objects in physics.