Conservation of Energy

Conservation of energy,principle
of physics according to which the
energy of interacting bodies or
particles in a closed system remains
constant.

When objects interact

energy can change form (energy

transduction)
energy can be transferred (energy
transfer)

Conservation of Energy

A decrease in one form of energy will

result in an increase in another form
of energy of equal magnitude.
E1=E2

So, we can prove what we stated

earlier that the energy is
transformed, not destroyed.

Conservation of Energy Formula

The Basic formula of conservation of energy is simple:

Energy spent in one act = Energy gained in the related

act

An object when dropped from a height

transforms its potential energy into kinetic
energy.
Mathematically it can be expressed as a
Conservation of Energy Equation as follows:

mgh = 1/2 mv2

where,
m is the mass of the object,
v is its final velocity after falling from a height
of h and
g is the acceleration due to gravity.

Sample Problem

A skier glides down a frictionless hill

of 100 meters, the ascends another
hill, of height 90 meters, as shown in
the figure below. What is the speed of
the skier when it reaches the top of
the second hill?

Solution
The skier is in a conservative system,
as the only force acting upon him is
gravity. Instead of calculating the
work done over the curved hills, we
can construct an alternate path,
because of the principle of path
independence:

We construct a path of two segments:

one is horizontal, going between the
two hills, and one is vertical,
accounting for the vertical drop
between the two hills. What is the work
done over each of these two
segments? Since the gravitational
force is perpendicular to the
displacement in the horizontal
segment, no work is done. For the
second segment, the gravitational
force is constant and parallel to the
displacement.

Thus the work done is: W = Fx = mgh =

10mg . By the Work-Energy Theorem,
this net work causes an increase in
velocity. If the skier started with no
initial velocity, then we can relate the
final velocity to the work done:
mv f 2 = 10mg
We can cancel the mass and solve for v f :
vf=
Vf = (20) (9.8m/s)
Thus the final velocity of the skier is 14
m/s.

What is conservation of
momentum?

In any collision, the total momentum

before the collision is equal to the
total momentum after collision,
provided that there is no external
force acting.