Energy is only ever transferred or transformed.
Here let’s look at a familiar example.
We have all at times experienced the uninvited maximum threshold of an episode of study-related frustration that we choose to let out free into the physical realm. [“I don’t understand. This is… SOME BULLSH*T!!”]
The motion of the book starts as chemical energy stored in the muscles of the unruly student’s arm. Chemical reactions associated with muscle contraction release some of this energy. This becomes the energy of motion, or kinetic energy, of the student’s hand and book. And like the roller coaster car…
Energy is transferred or transformed.
As the book rises up, it slows down and its kinetic energy decreases. But the kinetic energy is not destroyed. Instead it is converted into another form of energy, called gravitational energy.
The gravitational potential energy of the book is converted back into kinetic energy as the book falls down.
When the book lands on the ground, it makes a noise. Energy is released as sound.
And if the temperature of the ground and the book were to be measured precisely after the impact, a slight increase in temperature would be recorded in both. An increase in temperature in any substance is associated with the increase of the internal energy of its molecular constituents.
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