PC1201 Lecture 8

Conservation Laws I: Energy

Content 2

• Conservation laws
• Introduction to energy (History)
• Energy
• Forms
• Transformation
• Transfers
• Definitions
• Work
• Kinetic energy
• Potential Energy
• Conservation of energy
• Power
Conservation Laws
A new perspective for problem solving
Conservation Laws I: The need 4

• Simplicity
• Conservation laws indicate that some particular quantity
is conserved regardless of how complex a particular
process/interaction is.
• Therefore, we can make useful statements even if we are
unable to characterize the process fully.
• Broadness/applicability/scope
• Conserved quantities may surpass the boundaries of
subtopics in physics.
• It may even surpass boundaries of subject matter.
Conservation Laws II 5

• In this section, we will consider two conservation

laws
• Conservation of energy
• Conservation of momentum

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Energy: Introduction
Introduction Ia: History 7

• Idea/inkling of conservation of some sort has

been part of human history for millennia
• Epicurus (350 BC): “Sum total of things was always is
now, and such it will ever remain”
• But what was the conserved quantity was not clear
• Ancient philosophers thoughts…
• Thales of Miletus (550 BC):
• Water
• Empedocles (490-430 BC):
• Four roots – Earth, air, water, fire
Epicurus
Introduction Ib: History 8

• The word energy finds it roots in Greek: ἐνέργεια

• Appeared around 4th century BC (Aristotle)
• 1676-1689: Gottfried Leibniz
• Proposed the idea of vis viva (Latin for “living force”)
• ∑𝑖𝑖 𝑚𝑚𝑖𝑖 𝑣𝑣𝑖𝑖2
• He noticed that it was conserved for many mechanical
systems
• Newton (and others) held to the principle of conservation
of momentum ∑𝑖𝑖 𝑚𝑚𝑖𝑖 𝑣𝑣𝑖𝑖 (1687 – Principia)
• 1706-1749: Emilie du Chatelet
• Proposed the concept of conservation of total energy as
distinct from momentum
• Dropping objects on clay and noticing the deformation Emilie du Chatelet
was proportional to height and square of velocity
Introduction Ic: History 9

• 1807: Thomas Young used the term ‘energy’

instead of vis viva
• 1853: William Rankine introduced the idea of
potential energy
• 1915-1918: Emmy Noether showed that energy
conservation is the direct consequence of time
translation symmetry
• i.e. the laws of physics are the same regardless of when
the experiment is conductred
Emmy Noether
Energy: Forms, Transformations,
Transfers
Introduction to the types of energy we deal with and how their transfomrations
Energy I: Forms 11

• General forms of energy

• Kinetic energy
• Energy due to motion Gravitational
• Potential energy and kinetic
• Stored energy due to condition of object/forces of interaction energy
between objects
• Examples in this module:
• Gravitational potential energy
• Elastic potential energy
• Electric potential energy
• Thermal energy
• Sum of microscopic KE and PE of molecules
Elastic
• Chemical energy potential
• Energy stored in molecular bonds energy
• All these are different forms of the same physical quantity
• Unit: Joules (J)
Energy II: Transformations 12
Energy IIIa: Transfers I 13

• Energy transformation changes the form of

energy within the system
• Energy transfer exchanges energy between the
system and environment/external agent
• Two basic ways to transfer energy
• Work (mechanical)
• Heat (non-mechanical/thermodynamical)
• Note that work is a transfer of energy
• It’s not a form of energy
• Unit: Joule
Energy IIIb: Transfers II 14

Throwing a ball Lighting a match Firing a sling shot

System: Ball System: Match System: Slingshot
Environment: Athlete Environment I: Us Environment: Boy
Athlete uses up his chemical We move the match along the Boy uses us his chemical energy
energy to give the ball speed box increasing thermal energy to extend the sling shot
Def initions
Precise equations and formulae for the different types of energy and work
Def inition Ia: Work I 16

• Work is done on a system by an external agent

Wind exerts a
(i.e. a force) force on the
boat (system)
• Work done on a system should that speeds it
• Increase the energy of the system up (i.e.
increases
• “Work” done on a system that decreases the energy of energy)
the system is then considered negative work
• For system’s energy to change
• There must be some motion/displacement
Pushing an
• An immovable wall cannot experience energy change immovable
regardless of how hard we push wall
constitutes in
• Therefore, no work is being done on the wall precisely 0J
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of work being
• As energy is a scalar quantity (no direction), work done
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must also be scalar

Def inition Ib: Work II 17

• Therefore, we now know

• Work involves force 𝐹𝐹⃗ and displacement 𝑠𝑠⃗
• Is a signed scalar quantity
• Positive work increases the system’s energy
• Negative work decreases the system’s energy
• To aid intuition, consider an object being
displaced to the right with velocity 𝑣𝑣⃗
• A force in the direction of the displacement increases 𝑣𝑣⃗
• Increase KE
• A force in the opposite direction decreases 𝑣𝑣⃗
• Decrease KE
• A force perpendicular to displacement will not affect 𝑣𝑣⃗
• Doesn’t affect KE
Def inition Ic: Work III 18

• Therefore, we conclude that

𝑊𝑊 = 𝐹𝐹|| 𝑠𝑠 = 𝐹𝐹𝐹𝐹 cos 𝜃𝜃
Where
• 𝐹𝐹|| is the force parallel to the displacement 𝑠𝑠
• 𝜃𝜃 is the angle between the force and displacement vector
• Keep in mind that
cos 90 = 0 cos 180 = −1
and therefore, this automatically covers all the
points in the slide before
Def inition Id: Work IV 19

• If a graph of 𝐹𝐹 − 𝑥𝑥 is plotted, work done is the

area under the graph
• For curved graphs, this requires calculus (not
tested in our course)
• However, I can give you straight line graphs where
are under graph is simple to compute

Work done is the area under 𝐹𝐹 − 𝑥𝑥 graph

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Def inition II: Kinetic Energy 23

• To derive an equation for kinetic energy

• Consider motion in 1D
• A force does positive work and increases a system’s KE
𝑊𝑊 = Δ𝐾𝐾 = 𝐾𝐾𝑓𝑓 − 𝐾𝐾𝑖𝑖
• Recall your kinematics
𝑣𝑣 2 − 𝑢𝑢2
𝑣𝑣 2 = 𝑢𝑢2 + 2𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎 → = 𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎
2
• Recall definition of work1
𝑊𝑊 = 𝐹𝐹𝐹𝐹 = 𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚 𝑠𝑠
• Therefore 1D motion with force increasing kinetic energy of the
car
1 1
𝑚𝑚𝑣𝑣 − 𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚2 = 𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚 𝑠𝑠 = 𝐹𝐹𝐹𝐹 = 𝑊𝑊
2
2 2
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Def inition IIIa: Potential Energy I 27

• Recall that potential energy is:

• Stored energy due to condition of object/forces of
interaction between objects
• Only certain forces of interaction allows for
storage of energy in this manner
• These forces are called conservative forces
• By definition, conservative forces are forces where
• The total work done in moving an object depends only
on the position of the object, and is independent of the
path
• Alternatively, total work done upon completing a closed Work done by conservative force is independent of the
loop must be zero. path taken
Def inition IIIb: Potential Energy II 28

• Conservative forces dealt with in this module are

• Gravitational force
• Elastic force
• Electric (and magnetic) force (covered later)

Work done by gravitational force depends only on

height, and not on the path taken to that height
Def inition IIIc: Potential Energy III 29

• Magnitude of potential energy can be deduced

from the expression of work
𝑊𝑊 = 𝐹𝐹Δs
• 𝐹𝐹 = 𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚 for gravitational force
1
• 𝐹𝐹 = 𝑘𝑘 Δ𝑥𝑥 for elastic spring force
2
• The factor of half is because we’re averaging over a
changing force 𝐹𝐹 = 𝑘𝑘 Δ𝑥𝑥
• Therefore, we can conclude
1 2
Δ𝑈𝑈𝑔𝑔 = 𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚 ℎ 𝑈𝑈𝑠𝑠 = 𝑘𝑘 Δ𝑥𝑥
2
• ℎ = 𝑦𝑦𝑓𝑓 − 𝑦𝑦𝑖𝑖
• Δ𝑥𝑥 is the extension/compression of spring as measured
from equilibrium
Def inition IIId: Potential Energy IV 30

• Take care to distinguish between work done by

• External force
• Conservative force
• In the diagram to the right, both forces shown are
the external force!
Def inition IIIe: Potential Energy V 31

• Potential energy is defined such that

• When conservative forces do positive work on the
object, the potential energy of the object decreases
• That is, when objects fall down (same direction as
gravitational force), they lose potential energy
Def inition IIIf: Potential Energy VI 32

• As the spring force is a restoring force

• Its direction is always opposing direction of Δ𝑥𝑥
• Therefore unlike gravitational potential energy, 𝑈𝑈𝑠𝑠 can
never be negative
• This can also be seen from the square in the equation
1
𝑈𝑈 = 𝑘𝑘 Δ𝑥𝑥 2
2
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Conservation of energy
Conservation of energy I – Isolated system 36

• In an isolated/closed system, total energy remains

constant
Δ𝐸𝐸 = 0 → ∑𝐸𝐸𝑓𝑓 = ∑𝐸𝐸𝑖𝑖
• Sometimes this equation is written as
Δ𝑈𝑈𝑔𝑔 + Δ𝑈𝑈𝑠𝑠 + Δ𝐾𝐾 = 0
• Recall that in we consider several objects as part of one
system, there are no energy transfers
• That is both work and heat are zero

In an isolated system, total energy is conserved

Conservation of energy II – Non-isolated system 37

• In an open/non-isolated system, we have the work

energy theorem that states
Δ𝐸𝐸 = 𝑊𝑊 → ∑𝐸𝐸𝑓𝑓 − ∑𝐸𝐸𝑖𝑖 = 𝑊𝑊
• Also written as
Δ𝑈𝑈𝑔𝑔 + Δ𝑈𝑈𝑠𝑠 + Δ𝐾𝐾 = 𝑊𝑊
• In this the module, we consider only mechanical
energy, and therefore ignore heat
• Unlike the textbook, we do not consider thermal
energy of the system
• Any heat generated in our questions is considered lost In a non-isolated system, energy changes in the system is
to the environment. have to be compensated by work and heat
Conservation of energy – General advice 38

• For conservation law questions, the mindset is

significantly different from dynamics
• There is a very clear before (initial) and after (final)
• Our analysis is always in terms of initial and final
conditions
• We don’t think about the process or the acceleration
• Furthermore, work and energy are scalar quantities,
simplifying computation
• Like dynamics however, we need to be very clear
on the system of choice
• In particular, we should know if it open or close
Conservation of energy: Eg 1 39

At a country fair, Katie tries her hand

at the ring-the-bell attraction. She
swings the mallet hard enough to give
the ball an initial upward speed of
8.0m/s. Will the ball ring the bell,
3.0m from the bottom?
Conservation of energy: Eg 2 40

A sledder, starting from rest, slides down a

10.0m high hill. At the bottom of the hill
is a long horizontal patch of rough sow.
The hill is nearly frictionless, but the
coefficient of friction of the rough snow
patch is 𝜇𝜇𝑘𝑘 = 0.3. How far will the sled
slide along the rough patch?
Power
Takes time into account!
Power I: Def inition 42

Both these
cars take the
• Power is essentially the rate of energy transfer same energy
Δ𝐸𝐸 𝑊𝑊 to reach a 100
𝑃𝑃 = = km/h
𝑡𝑡 𝑡𝑡
• From kinematics however,
𝐹𝐹𝐹𝐹 𝐹𝐹𝑠𝑠
𝑃𝑃 = = = 𝐹𝐹𝐹𝐹
𝑡𝑡 𝑡𝑡
• If the object is moving at constant speed. But the race
car gets there
• Unit of power is Watt (W) much quicker,
and hence, has
higher power