Energy Career Guide and Counseling

Question: ENERGy!!!!!? i need to know what can make you reeeeeeally hyper, - any foods? - any drinks? - any energy drinks? (im looking mostly for answers with energy drinks) no alcohols or drugs please :D anything you could have at your house?

Answer: red bull, starbucks doubleshot

Question: What happen to heat energy after it is released to the atmosphere? According to the conservation of energy, energy is transformed into other forms of energy. In real cases, for example, in engines, not all chemical energy (from the fuel) is converted to kinetic energy (correct me if I'm wrong) because some of the input energy is dissipated as heat energy. So logically, the heat energy is released to the atmosphere. What happens to the heat energy after that?

Answer: The problem is that heat energy is dissipated, i.e. heat energy that is produced spreads out. The radiators in a lecture room produce heat energy. This heat energy dissipates and the surrounding area becomes very slightly warmer etc. This dissipated heat energy cannot be regained in a useful form.

Question: How is energy conserved when a dropped object hits the ground? I know that when an object is held at a particular height above the Earth, it has a quantity of potential energy associated with it, but no kinetic energy. When the object is dropped, it loses potential energy and gains kinetic energy, thereby ensuring that energy is conserved. However, I've never understood what happens when the object finally strikes the ground; at this point, it has no potential and no kinetic energy. I'm sure some of it is released as heat and sound, but that can't account for all the energy, can it?

Answer: If the collision between the object and the ground were perfectly elastic, you would find that the object would bounce back up, from the ground, to the initial height that it was dropped from. However, when the collision is inelastic (like the case you are referring to), energy is dissipated by three means: compression waves generated in the air (sound), deformation of the objects involved in the collision, and some heat release due to friction. Energy is this case (as in every case) is conserved, the problem is that useful energy has been turned into very useless forms of energy - heat, sound, and deformed objects.

Question: What energy exactly does photosynthesis extract from sunlight? Photosynthesis, the biological conversion from light energy to chemical energy... But I thought photons have zero mass (therefore zero energy?), so where is this energy coming from? Does it just refer to the extremely small energy that comes from a photon's momentum?

Answer: Photons have energy even if they dont have mass (rest mass). Both subjects are not directly related. The energy of a photon is calculated as Energy=frecuency*plank constants and is usally measured in electronvolts. The average photon in solar radiation has an energy of 1.5 electronvolts. Again, no mass is required.

Question: What energy changes take place when a ball that is falling through the air reaches its terminal velocity? I know that at terminal velocity, kinetic energy remains constant. I know that potential energy decreases because the height changes and air friction against the ball causing heat but I know that is minimal. I really need to know also, where does all that extra potential energy go because before terminal velocity, I would have said kinetic energy but because this is constant, where does the bulk of the potential energy go. Please correct me if I am wrong.

Answer: The kinetic energy might be constant, but you have to remember that at the point it attains its terminal velocity it is traveling at a great speed. KE is directly proportional to the square of velocity. The heat produced by air friction can not be ignored. There could be other forms of energy transformation taking place, such as sound, light, etc. But the sum of all these different forms of energy would still be equal to the initial potential energy of the ball . teddy boy

Question: Where does the energy for gravity come from? According to the law of conservation of energy, energy is not created from nothing. It is either converted from mass or from other types of energy. In this case, where does the energy for gravity come from? For instance, the force pushing down the water in Niagara Falls is gravity, and we generate electricity from this energy. Where does this energy come from?

Answer: Gravity has no energy. the energy of Niagra falls comes from the rain. The sun's energy put the water higher than the falls. when the water is high, it is called potential energy. as the water is pulled lower, it releases energy; this is called kinetic energy. it is not the gravity that has the energy, it is the change in position of the water.

Question: What is energy and how does it influence matter? I know it is possible that sub-atomic particles are made of energy-like things called quarks. According to my understanding of them they are more like energy than they are like matter. Unfortunately I have a very basic understanding of these particles and their relationship with energy. I have books about sub-atomic particles but they don't really talk about the influence energy has on matter. Anyone wanna give me a crash course on energy? How would you define it and its effect? Thanks in advance.

Answer: Actually quarks are matter (mass is a better term); they are the fundamental building blocks of protons and neutrons. But from the well-known E = mc^2, where m is mass and c is light speed in a vacuum, we can easily see that all mass is equivalent to energy E. That is to say, we don't need to differentiate between mass and energy because they are just different states of the same thing. In fact, we often, and more correctly, say "mass-energy" when talking about matter because they are equivalent. On the other hand, we know that some particles do not behave like mass should behave. Photons are examples of such particles. For one thing, photons can travel at light speed; mass cannot. Mass cannot travel at light speed because, at that velocity, all mass has infinite inertia...which is why we frrequently call mass "inertial mass." For example, if we accelerate a proton to 99.99% of light speed, its inertial mass M will be 70.7 times m the rest mass of the proton when it is not moving. This does not mean the proton's mass grows in size, but it does mean it will be 70.7 times harder to move and/or change direction than when it was at rest. The power from nuke power plants and bombs comes from converting the mass states into energy states. What happens when we split or fuse mass particles (like plutonium or hydrogen) is that some of the mass loses its inertia and changes into energy. As a result, the sum of mass before the fission or fusion reaction is always greater than the sum of mass after it. And that mass difference is manifest as energy like heat, nuke radiation, light, and so on. E = mc^2 is a two-way street. We can and have created mass from energy in the lab. We can only do it in the lab because it takes an enormous amount of energy to make even the tiniest bit of mass. An interesting aspect of the energy to mass conversion is that we cannot make mass without also making anti-mass (i.e., anti-matter). For example, we cannot create an electron without creating the positron...the anti-electron. But the anti-matter is short lived and soon disappears as something else, like photons and/or some normal mass.

Question: Is worldwide energy drilling and mining going at such a pace that will tank energy stocks in the near future? I look at a map of energy production around the world. There are so many mines, so many drill sites pumping oil, so much energy being extracted, competing with solar production etc. Is the energy sector bubbled at the top? It just doesn't make sense to me otherwise! Unbelieveable energy mining and drilling! Unbelievable!

Answer: There are more drillings than ever before but less is oil is being extracted. Scary but its going to get worse. Here is the link: http://www.commodityonline.com/news/tops…

Question: What are the potential energy and the total energy at time tf? At time ti, the kinetic energy of a particle is 30.0 J and the potential energy of the system to which it belongs is 11.0 J. At some later time tf, the kinetic energy of the particle is 16.0 J. (a) If only conservative forces act on the particle, what are the potential energy and the total energy at time tf?

Answer: If all energy is conserved, the total energy in the system will remain the same. 30J + 11J = 41J total initially. PE+16J = 41J... PE = 25J Hope this helps.

Question: What is the difference between thermal and internal energy? According to many sources, internal energy is the kinetic and potential energies of molecules of a substance - combined. Some sources also say that thermal energy is that definition. However, I don't think that thermal energy is kinetic and potential energy combined. I know that heat transfer occurs between a region with higher temperature and a region with lower temperature, but it isn't necessarily the case with two regions of different internal energies. So that seems to imply to me that temperature is a measurement of thermal energy - so in that sense thermal energy is merely the average kinetic energy of molecules and as such, doesn't include the potential energy. Is that right? Thanks (:

Answer: Yes, that is correct. Temperature is a measure of molecular kinetic energy. If you think of the conditions at absolute zero, 0 K (or -273 C) all molecular vibration stops, i.e. all kinetic energy goes to zero. Potential energy is energy stored in the molecular structure that can be released under a given condition. Example, explosive compounds have high potential energy. Under safe handling, room temperature conditions, the thermal kinetic energy will be the same as the lab table top. The combined internal energy is the kinetic plus potential energy.