Energy Basics
Look around for examples of work, force, energy and power in action.Copyright Pixabay, 2020. Free for commercial use.
https://pixabay.com/photos/sports-rowing-oar-competition-4895568/
Demos and activities in this lesson are intended to illustrate the basic concepts of energy science—work, force, energy, power etc., and the relationships among them. The "lecture" portion of the lesson includes many demonstrations to keep students engaged, yet has high expectations for students to perform energy-related calculations and convert units. A homework assignment and quiz are provided to reinforce and assess these basic engineering science concepts.
The basic concepts of work, force, energy and power are fundamental physics concepts utilized in many engineering calculations and design. Every engineered device that moves, lifts or pushes requires energy. An engineer must know how to calculate the power and energy needed to do the necessary work or provide the required heat.
Most of the world uses metric units to quantify engineering terms, while the US still performs some of its engineering work using the old British system. Metric units are all based on fundamental physics quantities. That makes the metric Joule, Newton and watt much easier to use and calculate than the British BTU (British thermal unit), horse power, pound force, and slug. In this unit, metric units are used, but a few British units are included as reference point because they are more familiar for many energy measurements.
After this lesson, students should be able to:
- Define and contrast energy, work and power.
- Given mass, distance, and time, calculate work, force and power using appropriate units.
- Given the conversion formulas, convert between horsepower and kilowatts.
- Use measurement tools to apply the concepts of work, power and energy to real-life examples.