1 - 2 - week 1 video 2- what is energy- and why do we need it-.

txt [MUSIC] In this video I'd like to introduce a few basic terms for defining energy. And, while we're going to spend some time talking about a few of these definitions in detail, though I promise it will be very limited detail, what I really want you to take away from this video is that in the most essential sense energy is simply the capacity to do work. Now sometimes you're going to find literature that refers to three different kinds of energy, I personally feel in a sense that conflates the definition of energy with the term energy. So, instead what I like to keep sort of separate is what energy is and the kinds of work that it can do. Energy can do mechanical work, it can do thermal work and it can do electrical work. Mechanical work refers to displacement of mass. So for instance, if you kick a soccer ball then you are exerting some energy to move the ball from one point to another. Displacement of mass requires applying a force over some distance. And so if you recall some of your unit analysis from, your elementary physics courses, force can be further decomposed into the product of mass and acceleration. So, the capacity to do work is the product of mass acceleration and the distance that you're going to move that mass. So for example, when the measure, the, let's say most universal measure you'll hear used is a joule. A joule is defined as a newton meter. And a newton, if you recall, is a kilogram, meter per second squared. So that's the amount of force applied over a meter is referred to as a joule. Thermal work I like to think of as displacement of atoms just because I think it's useful to keep these concepts, straight if you can think of them in some kind of parallel sense. So where as mechanical work is displaced at a mass think, about thermal work as a displacement of atoms. Displacement of atoms simply means you're sort of agitating and exciting atoms for, for Page 1

1 - 2 - week 1 video 2- what is energy- and why do we need it-.txt instance if you are cooking, you're basically taking energy to transform the object that you're cooking. You know atoms become agitated or move when heat is applied and the, measure, that we may all be familiar with for heat is a calorie. A Calorie is defined as the energy required to increase the temperature of a gram of water by one degree Celsius, specifically to increase the temperature of a gram of water from 3 and a half degrees Celsius to 4 and half degrees Celsius. So, this, by the way is also known as a small calorie which is only, is concept, is, is just a little bit different from a food calorie. When we think about food calories we're basically thinking about 1,000 small calories, but a calorie is just a, measure of energy that is, doing thermal work. And it is equivalent to, just over 4 Joules. So a joule is about a quarter of a calorie. [BLANK_AUDIO] And whereas mechanical work is displacement of mass, and we think of thermal work as displacement of atoms, electrical work we can think of as displacement of electrons. When we apply a magnetic field to a circuit, we induce electrons to travel through that circuit. So that is the, the work being done to induce those electrons to travel is, or to move is, is electrical, is the energy applied to do electrical work. One joule is the amount of energy that can induce an amp through an ohm of resistance for one second. [BLANK_AUDIO] So you, as you read and, and work in various fields in energy you're going to come across lots of different terms. And all you have to do is, is keep in mind that idea of, work being moving something. Moving either electrons or, or atoms to, that represent heat or, that movement represents heat or mass. So you may, come across this term joule but you'll also come across terms like horsepower-hour or therms or calories or kilowatt-hours. Page 2

1 - 2 - week 1 video 2- what is energy- and why do we need it-.txt All of these are just referring to amounts of energy, but they're just implicitly referring to some specific type of work that the energy is being used to do. But what I really want you, as I mentioned, to take away from this course, is the idea that energy represents the capacity to do work. So consider, for example, one of our ancestors. And if our ancestor was fortunate they would come across some objects like food, that they could basically consume to acquire some energy. In this case, in the form of calories. And, of course, if they're going to survive, they hopefully are going to find an opportunity to expend some effort, do some work, to acquire more of those calories. And that really is, is the cycle I want you thinking about. Now of course you can imagine in a situation if they're able to get more energy from their consumption of calories, then they need to expend in work to acquire replacement calories, then they're going to have extra energy to do other things. Maybe build a shelter. Maybe play with their children. Maybe create some kind of art. You know, so they'll be able to use that energy and consumption activities as well as production activities. But I, I, I like to think about this in this very most basic and essential sense, because it, it underscores just what a basic need energy is for our every kind of activity we can think of. [MUSIC]

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