Chapter 8 Energy and Power
Energy is perhaps the most important property of every physical system. In this chapter, we will learn about energy due to motion, also called kinetic energy, and ways by which energy is transferred between physical objects. The energy transfer due to force betwen bodies is called work. Conservative interactions allow us to introduce a concept of potential energy that can be assigned to a body due to its location relative to other bodies. The potential energies arise due to interaction among objects and we will look at potential energies arizing out of some common forces. The sum of kinetic and potential energy is called energy of the system, which is conserved for isolated system. We will also find that energy considerations in collisions give us important information about the collision process itself.
