For many of you reading this page, it might be tough to imagine getting up
at 4am every day for the rest of your life. You might say to yourself,
man, I wouldn't have enough energy. Energy is term that we use loosely in
our society. Cars need energy to run. Houses need energy for heating,
cooling, and electricity. People need energy to run marathons. But in
reality, everything needs energy to function. In biological systems,
energy comes from breaking down sugars, proteins, and fats in the body.
However, when we talk about energy in chemical systems, we're talking
about a slightly different concept.
So what "kind" of energy are we talking about?
- Kinetic: the energy of motion
- Potential: the energy stored in springs, objects at varying
heights,etc
- Light: radiation from the sun in the form of energy packets called
photons
- Nuclear: energy stored within the nucleus of an atom
- Electrical: energy from moving charges like electrons
- Heat: energy given off by many reactions (considered a waste product of
chemical reactions)
- Mechanical: the energy of work, such as the turning of gears in a
clock
