When a ball is above the table, the ball has some potential energy and when the ball is dropped from the table to the ground, that potential energy gets converted into kinetic energy.
But where does that energy go when the ball has dropped all the way to the ground? At the ground, the potential energy should be zero because no height and since the ball is not moving, the kinetic energy should also be zero. But according to the law of thermodynamics, “energy cannot be destroyed.” So my question is, where does the energy go when the ball reaches the ground?
In: Chemistry
One thing that I think you might be missing is that the potential / kinetic energy equations are all relative to your frame of reference.
In your example, the ground is your 0 point, because you measured from the ground up to the table. Setting your frame of reference so one part of the equation calculates to 0 (or is otherwise easy to simplify) makes is a good choice, but it is completely arbitrary.
If you tweaked your question so that the ground you drop the ball onto is at the top of a hill such that the ball starts rolling after it hits the ground, you may find that using the bottom of the hill as the 0 point for your reference frame makes sense.
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