Topic: Energy - Energy Stores and Systems

This set of vocabulary flashcards covers the fundamental energy stores, the definition of systems and closed systems, and the various pathways for energy transfer.

Energy

A quantity that is never used up, but is instead just transferred between different energy stores and different objects.

Thermal energy stores

Also known as internal energy stores, these are one of the eight stores where energy is held.

Kinetic energy stores

One of the eight energy stores that holds energy related to the movement of objects.

Gravitational potential energy stores

One of the eight energy stores where energy is transferred, for example, when a ball is dropped and accelerated by gravity.

Elastic potential energy stores

One of the eight energy stores where energy can be transferred, such as in the body of a car during a collision.

Chemical energy stores

One of the eight energy stores, such as the energy in a person's arm used to throw a ball.

Magnetic energy stores

One of the eight specific energy stores identified in physics where energy can be stored.

Electrostatic energy stores

One of the eight specific energy stores identified in physics where energy can be stored.

Nuclear energy stores

One of the eight specific energy stores identified in physics where energy can be stored.

System

A fancy word for a single object, such as the air in a piston, or a group of objects, such as two colliding vehicles.

Closed systems

Systems where neither matter nor energy can enter or leave, and the net change in total energy is always $0$.

Mechanically

A method of energy transfer involving a force doing work.

Electrically

A method of energy transfer involving work done by moving charges.

Heating

A method of energy transfer, such as transferring energy from a kettle's heating element to the thermal energy store of the water.

Radiation

A method of energy transfer that can occur through light or sound.

Work done

Another way of saying energy transferred.