Energy Conservation
Energy Conservation - Related Videos
10:16
Conservation of Energy Approach to System Analysis
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2023
Source: Ricardo Mejia-Alvarez and Hussam Hikmat Jabbar, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI The purpose of this experiment is to demonstrate the application of the energy conservation equation to determine the performance of a flow system. To this end, the energy equation for steady, incompressible flow is applied to a short pipe with a gate valve. The gate valve is then gradually closed and its influence on flow conditions is characterized. In...
00:54
Conservation of Energy
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2023
The terms 'conserved quantity' and 'conservation law' have specific scientific meanings in physics, which differ from the meanings associated with their everyday use. For example, in everyday usage, water could be conserved by not using it, by using less of it, or by re-using it. However, in scientific terms, a conserved quantity of a system stays constant, changes by a definite amount that is transferred to other systems, and is converted into other forms of that quantity. In the scientific...
01:12
Conservation of Energy: Application
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2023
When solving problems using the energy conservation law, the object (system) to be studied should first be identified. Often, in applications of energy conservation, we study more than one body at the same time. Second, identify all forces acting on the object and determine whether each force doing work is conservative. If a non-conservative force (e.g., friction) is doing work, then mechanical energy is not conserved. The system must then be analyzed with non-conservative work. Third, for...
01:05
Conservation of Mechanical Energy
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2023
The mechanical energy E of a system is the sum of its potential energy U and the kinetic energy K of the objects within it. What happens to this mechanical energy when only conservative forces cause energy transfers within the system—that is, when frictional and drag forces do not act on the objects in the system? Also assume that the system is isolated from its environment; in other words no external force from an object outside the system causes energy changes inside the system. When a...
01:16
Energy Conservation and Bernoulli's Equation
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2025
Applying the conservation of energy principle or the work-energy theorem to an incompressible, inviscid fluid in laminar, steady, irrotational flow leads to Bernoulli's equation. It states that the sum of the fluid pressure, potential, and kinetic energy per unit volume is constant along a streamline. All the terms in the equation have the dimension of energy per unit volume. The kinetic energy per unit volume is called the kinetic energy density, and the potential energy per unit volume is...
FAQs
The accounting depends on what is included in the system. If an object, its surroundings, and a transfer between them are treated as one system, that transfer can be tracked internally. If the boundary excludes part of the interaction, work or heat must be recorded as energy crossing the boundary. A clear boundary prevents gains or losses from being counted inconsistently.
Work and heat are bookkeeping categories for energy transferred during an interaction. Recording them alongside changes in kinetic, potential, thermal, or chemical energy shows how an initial state becomes a final state. This approach is useful when several transfers occur at once, because it links measurable exchanges to the system’s overall energy balance.
Following a transformation from one energy form to another identifies what changes while preserving the total account. An analysis can distinguish kinetic, potential, thermal, and chemical contributions instead of treating energy as a single undifferentiated quantity. This separation helps explain outcomes in physical systems and avoids requiring a calculation of every microscopic interaction.
To analyze motion or a collision, first specify the objects and surroundings included in the system. Then list the relevant energy forms before and after the event, together with any work or heat crossing the boundary. Comparing those entries shows whether the observed change comes from redistribution within the system or from an external transfer.
Machines and technologies can be evaluated by tracing where supplied energy goes. The analysis follows transformations into useful effects and into other forms, such as thermal energy, rather than ignoring energy that is not part of the intended output. This accounting helps designers identify how energy is distributed and supports efforts to improve technological efficiency.
Thermodynamic processes often involve simultaneous changes in thermal energy, work, and heat. Energy Conservation provides a way to relate those changes across the process, even when microscopic interactions are too numerous to calculate individually. In physics, this makes the principle useful for connecting measured transfers with the behavior of large-scale systems.