Everything about Mechanical Energy totally explained
In
physics,
mechanical energy describes the
potential energy and
kinetic energy present in the components of a
mechanical system.
Related concepts
When a given amount of
mechanical energy is transferred (such as when throwing a ball, lifting a box, crushing a soda can, or stirring a beverage) it's said that this amount of
mechanical work has been done. Both mechanical energy and mechanical work are measured in the same units as
energy in general. It is usually said that a component of a system
has a certain amount of "mechanical energy" (for example it's a
state function), whereas "mechanical work" describes the amount of mechanical energy a component has
gained or lost.
The
conservation of mechanical energy is a principle which states that under certain conditions, the total mechanical energy of a system is constant. This rule doesn't hold when mechanical energy is converted to other forms, such as chemical, nuclear, or electromagnetic. However, the principle of general
conservation of energy is so far an unbroken rule of physics - as far as we know, energy can't be created or destroyed, only changed in form.
Simplifying assumptions
Scientists make simplifying assumptions to make calculations about how mechanical systems react. For example, instead of calculating the mechanical energy separately for each of the billions of molecules in a soccer ball, it's easier to treat the entire ball as one object. This means that only two numbers (one for kinetic mechanical energy, and one for potential mechanical energy) are needed for each
dimension (for example, up/down, north/south, east/west) under consideration.
To calculate the energy of a system without any simplifying assumptions would require examining the state of all elementary particle(s) and considering all four
fundamental interactions). This is usually only done for very small systems, such as those studied in
particle physics.
Distinguished from other types of energy
The classification of energy into different "types" often follows the boundaries of the fields of study in the natural sciences.
In certain cases, it can be unclear what counts as "mechanical" energy. For example, is the energy stored in the structure of a crystal "mechanical" or "chemical"? Scientists generally use these "types" as convenient labels which clearly distinguish between different phenomena. It isn't scientifically important to decide what is "mechanical" energy and what is "chemical". In these cases, usually there's a more specific name for the phenomenon in question. For example, in considering two bonded atoms, there are energy components from vibrational motion, from angular motions, from the electrical charge on the nuclei, secondary electromagnetic considerations like the
Van der Waals force, and quantum mechanical contributions concerning the energy state of the electron shells.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Mechanical Energy'.
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