Energy Stores & Transfers
Energy is never made or lost — only moved. Name the stores it sits in, the pathways it moves along, and calculate the energy in a moving, lifted or heated object.
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Energy Stores & Transfers 🔋
Energy cannot be **created or destroyed** — only **transferred** from one store to another. That single idea (conservation of energy) runs through all of physics. So we track energy in two ways: the **stores** it sits in, and the **transfers** (pathways) that move it between them.
Energy stores 🗄️
An energy **store** is where energy is held. The ones you must know: **kinetic** (moving), **gravitational** (raised up), **elastic** (stretched/squashed), **chemical** (fuel, food, batteries), **thermal** (hot objects), plus **magnetic**, **electrostatic** and **nuclear**. Every object with energy has it in one or more of these stores.
Match each object to its main energy store
- A car driving along
- A stretched spring
- A book on a high shelf
- A lump of coal
- Kinetic store
- Elastic potential store
- Gravitational potential store
- Chemical store
Which are stores?
Pick the TWO energy STORES from this list.
- Kinetic
- Chemical
- Heating
- Electrical
Energy transfers 🔀
Energy moves between stores along **pathways** — the four **transfers**: **mechanical** (a force doing work), **electrical** (a current), **heating**, and **radiation** (e.g. light). ⚠️ Use the store and transfer names precisely. Banned phrases like "heat energy" lose marks — say the **thermal store** and the **heating transfer** instead.
Store or transfer?
Which of these is an energy TRANSFER (a pathway), not a store?
- Heating
- Chemical
- Kinetic
- Elastic
Kinetic energy 🏃
A moving object has energy in its **kinetic store**. You must **recall** this equation: **Ek = ½ m v²** (energy in joules, mass in kg, speed in m/s). The speed is **squared**, so doubling the speed gives four times the kinetic energy.
Kinetic energy
An interactive activity.
Gravitational potential energy ⬆️
Lifting an object stores energy in its **gravitational potential store**. Recall: **Ep = m g h** (mass in kg, gravitational field strength g = **9.8 N/kg**, height in m). Raise the mass or the height and the stored energy goes up in proportion.
Gravitational PE
An interactive activity.
Order the method
An interactive activity.
Equations you are GIVEN 📄
Two energy equations are printed on the exam sheet, so you just **substitute** into them: • **Elastic PE:** Ee = ½ k e² (spring constant k, extension e). • **Specific heat capacity:** ΔE = m c Δθ (mass, specific heat capacity c, temperature change). Knowing an equation is given lets you focus on units and rearranging instead of memorising it.
Heating something up
An interactive activity.
Power ⚡
**Power** is the **rate** of energy transfer — how much energy is moved each second. Recall: **P = E ÷ t** (power in watts, energy in joules, time in seconds). One **watt** is one joule per second. A more powerful device transfers the same energy in less time.
Work out the power
An interactive activity.
The energy rules
Energy is held in energy _____ (such as kinetic and chemical) and moves between them by energy _____ (such as heating and electrical). Power is the rate of energy transfer, measured in _____.