Post: Other Forms of Energy
This will be my final blog post on the conservation of energy. In this blog post, you will come across other forms of energy such as chemical energy, elastic energy, etc. You will also encounter Einstein’s formula for energy. However, you will not only learn about energy in this post. You will also learn about the other conservation laws in physics. After this, you will know everything you need to know about energy and the conservation of energy.
Einstein’s Equation of Energy
Back in the 20th century, Albert Einstein developed a famous formula for calculating a form of energy called rest energy. The formula is $E = mc^2$, where $E$ is the energy in joules, $m$ is the mass in kilograms, and $c$ is the speed of light. This means that the more mass an object has, the more energy it has. An object with a mass of 35 kilograms will have an energy of approximately $3.15 \times 10^{18}$ joules, while an object with a mass of 30 kilograms will have an energy of approximately $2.7 \times 10^{18}$ joules. As you can see, the 35 kilogram object has a greater energy. However, there is another way to prove this statement. The speed of light is a positive constant, so the bigger the number you multiply it by, the bigger result you will get. For example, if you multiply every number by 5, the bigger the number you are multiplying 5 with, the bigger answer you will get. This formula shows that mass can be converted to energy.
Six Conservation Laws
There are two other conservation laws comparable to the conservation of energy. The first one is the conservation of linear momentum. The other is called the conservation of angular momentum. Sadly, these will not be covered in this post. However, there are three more conservation laws included here. The first one is the conservation of charge, which is the law that if you find the total electric charge, which is basically counting all the positive charges you have, and subtracting all the negative charges from it, it will stay the same. The next one, the conservation of baryon number states that the number of baryons, particles such as neutrons and protons in a closed system will remain the same every time. And, finally, we have the conservation of lepton number. If we count the number of leptons, another group of particles, we will get the same number before and after a reaction. These are the six main conservation laws of physics.
Other Forms of Energy
Gravitational potential energy and kinetic energy are not the only forms of energy - there are a lot more. Let’s start with elastic energy. Elastic energy is the energy in an object when it is stretched. When you stretch a rubber band, it will have elastic energy. Now let’s go to chemical energy. Chemical energy is the potential energy stored in atoms and molecules, which are released during chemical reactions. An example of chemical energy is the energy in food. Digesting the food (the chemical reaction) releases energy. The last form of energy in this paragraph is electrical energy. Electrical energy is the energy when charged particles, such as electrons flow through things called conductors. An example of a conductor is a wire. Electricity goes through these wires. If you have a phone plugged into the charger, the device/phone is using electrical energy. The charged particles flow through the wires and give electrical energy.
Conclusion
As you can see, showed you more than just other forms of energy. I showed you five other conservation laws and what each of them do, and I showed you what Einstein’s equation really means. You should now know everything you need to know about the conservation of energy. It is also amazing how energy is conserved and it can’t be created or destroyed. I hope you learned something new and had a lot of fun reading this. Make sure to read my other posts!