Mission WE7 Mechanical Energy Conservation
Hold down the T key for 3 seconds to activate the audio accessibility mode, at which point you can click the K key to pause and resume audio. Useful for the Check Your Understanding and See Answers.
In order for an object to conserve its total mechanical energy it is absolutely necessary that ____. List all that apply ... .
If non-conservative forces do net work upon an object, then the total mechanical energy of that object is changed. The sum of the kinetic and potential energies will change as work is done upon the object.
All the different types of forces that could do work upon an object can be categorized as either conservative or non-conservative forces. A conservative force is a type of force that serves to transform an object's energy between kinetic and potential. When only conservative forces do work upon an object, the energy of the object changes forms (KE to PE or vice versa) without changing the total amount of mechanical energy.
Definition of Non-conservative Force:
All the different types of forces that could do work upon an object can be categorized as either conservative or non-conservative forces. A non-conservative force is a type of force that changes the total amount of mechanical energy possessed by an object. When non-conservative forces do work upon an object, the total amount of mechanical energy changes.
The role of conservative forces (when doing work) is to change the form of energy possessed by an object; kinetic energy is changed into potential energy or vice versa. The role of non-conservative forces (when doing work) is to change the total amount of mechanical energy possessed by an object. In order for mechanical energy to be conserved, it is essential that the total amount of work done by non-conservative forces is zero.
