What is the difference between a form of energy and a Force?
In: 8
Force is what accelerates a mass. Energy is a completely different thing, the potential to create a force across some distance.
Like the other comment said; Force makes an object move faster or slower (or change the object’s direction, depending on how the force is applied). Energy is a force provided over a distance (and a few other things; see the comment below).
Let’s take a car crash for an example. The front part of the car crumples (that is the distance) and there’s an average force over that distance. If we multiply the two together, we’ll get (roughly) the energy of the car before the collision.
Another way is to think of is this example. A stationary block has no energy. You exert a force on that block to which it accelerates to a certain speed. The energy, is the accumulation of that force.
There are different forms of energy of course. The energy described above is kinetic. There is also thermal, gravitational, nuclear, etc.
Energy is the concept that motivates action in the physical world. Whether heat, light, sound, force, gravity, chemistry. Force is a form of energy that is related to motion and sustained movement.
E^(k)=(1/2)mv^2 , F=ma
Energy is more instantaneous as it is the derivative, mathematically to this situation, of Force motivated by kinetic energy. You need sustained energy to provide prolonged force and a change in momentum. It’s similar to Impulse but Impulse is the measure of change rather than it’s prolonged application of Kinetic Energy.
Energy’s domain is everything that physically can be transferred and transformed which is still everything. Force’s domain is motion and Newtonian Concepts.
A force is simply the transfer of energy between kinetic and potential. Energy can exist is so many forms, but the only way between those two is with a force. Forces simply bridge the gap between thermodynamics (study of energy) and kinematics (study of moion)
This is a deceiving complex question and hinges on the definition of a force. A force is something that changes the velocity of an object. While energy is typically find as the ability to get work done. However things like heat, light and other radiation are forms of energy. Einstein made the equation E=mc^2, so even mass itself is a form of energy. So the bottom line, energy is thing that all forces need to occur. But, there can be energy with no force.
Latest Answers