3.2.1

Internal Energy

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Internal Store of Energy

The amount of energy in an object’s internal store is the sum (total) of the kinetic and chemical potential stores of the object's particles.

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Kinetic store

  • The energy in an object's kinetic store comes from the random motion of its particles.
  • 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.
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Potential store

  • The energy in an object's potential store comes from the potential energy stored in the bonds between particles.

Change in Thermal Energy

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Formula for change in thermal energy

  • The change in thermal energy equals the mass times the specific heat capacity times the temperature change.
    • The specific heat capacity of a body (object) is the energy needed to increase the temperature of one kilogram of the body by 1°C.

Jump to other topics

1Energy

2Electricity

3Particle Model of Matter

4Atoms & Radiation

5Forces

6Waves

7Magnetism

8Astrophysics

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