1.1.1

Energy Stores

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Stores of Energy

Energy can be stored in a system in lots of different ways. Some stores of energy are:

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Kinetic store

  • The energy stored by an object’s movement.
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Gravitational potential store

  • The energy stored in objects raised above the Earth’s surface.
    • This energy exists because of the Earth’s gravitational field.
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Chemical store

  • The energy stored by the chemical bonds between atoms.
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Elastic potential store

  • The energy stored when an object is being stretched, compressed or squashed.
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Nuclear store

  • The energy stored in the nucleus of an atom.
  • The energy in the nuclear store can be released by radioactive decay.
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Internal (thermal) store

  • The internal store of energy is the sum of the kinetic energy stored in the particles of an object and the chemical energy stored in chemical bonds between particles in the object.

The Storing of Energy

There are a few useful ways to think about the conservation and storing of energy:

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Bank account

  • We can think of energy stores and transfers as a bank account.
    • You earn money by doing work, then save it until there is something you want.
    • You then transfer it to another person to buy whatever it is you want.
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Your body

  • Energy is added to your body's chemical store when you eat food.
    • Energy is stored there until you need it.
    • Your body then transfers it to your thermal store when you need to keep warm, or to your kinetic store to move about.

Internal Store of Energy

The energy stored by the particles that make up an object is called the internal energy of the object.

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Internal energy

  • The amount of energy in an object’s internal energy is the sum (total) of the kinetic energy and potential energy stored in the object's particles.
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Internal energy and temperature

  • The temperature of a body (object) is a measure of the energy in the kinetic stores of its particles.
  • Increasing a body’s temperature increases the energy in the kinetic stores of the body’s particles, which means that the energy in the body’s internal store also increases.

Jump to other topics

1Energy

2Electricity

3Particle Model of Matter

4Atoms & Radiation

5Forces

6Waves

7Magnetism

8Astrophysics

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