Energy transfers
The capacity for doing work. can remain in the same store for millions of years before it is transferred, sometimes just for a fraction of a second. Energy transfers happen all the time - whenever a An object or group of objects. changes, there is a change in the way some or all of the energy is stored.
Image caption, A swinging pirate ship ride at a theme park
A kinetic energy store is transferred to a gravitational energy store
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Transferring energy
In each of these examples energy is transferred by one of the following four types of energy transfer:
- mechanical work - a force moving an object through a distance
- electrical work - charges moving due to a potential difference
- heating - due to temperature difference caused electrically or by chemical reaction
- radiation - energy transferred as a wave, eg light and infrared - the Sun emits light radiation and infrared radiation
Doing 'work' is the scientific way of saying that energy has been transferred. For example, a grazing cow, a firing catapult and a boiling kettle are all doing 'work' because energy is being transferred from one store to another.
