Energy Definitions Flashcards
Closed System:
A system that experiences no net change in its total energy when energy transfers occur within it.
Conservation of Energy:
The law that energy can be transferred, stored or dissipated but never created or destroyed.
Efficiency:
The ratio of useful output energy transfer to total energy input
Elastic Potential Energy:
The store of energy that stretched or compressed objects experience. It is directly proportional to the stiffness constant and to the square of the extension or compression.
Fossil Fuels
coal, oil and gas
Gravitational Potential Energy
The store of energy that all raised matter has. It is directly proportional to the mass of the object, the distance that it is risen and the gravitational field strength at that point.
Joule
The unit used for energy. Equal to the work done when a force of one Newton acts over a distance of one metre.
Kinetic Energy
The store of energy that all moving matter has. It is directly proportional to the object’s mass and to the square of its velocity.
Power
The rate at which energy is transferred, or at which work is done.
Renewable energy resource
An energy resource that can be replenished whilst
it is being used.
Renewable energy source
An energy resource that can be replenished whilst
it is being used.
Specific heat capacity
The amount of energy required to raise the temperature of 1kg of a substance by 1°C.
Spring constant
A measure of a spring’s stiffness. The greater the value, the greater the force required to stretch or compress the spring by a given distance
System
A single, or group of objects
Thermal conductivity
The higher this value is for a given material, the higher the
material’s rate of energy transfer via conduction will be.
