Naming types of energy
Name and use vocabulary for types of energy and energy transfer — kinetic energy, potential energy, heat energy, light energy, sound energy, electrical energy, chemical energy, stored energy, energy transfer, energy transformation — and describe energy changes in familiar situations using these terms
What a learner can do afterwards
- Name the type of energy stored in a battery, a stretched spring, and a moving ball
- Use 'energy transfer' or 'energy transformation' to describe what happens in a simple device such as a torch or a toaster
- Distinguish between 'stored energy' and 'transferred energy' with a correct example of each
The lesson
Energy is what makes things move, glow, make sound, or heat up. Energy comes in different types, and each type has its own name.
A battery has chemical energy stored inside it. A stretched spring has potential energy, waiting to spring back. A rolling ball has kinetic energy, the energy of movement.
When energy changes from one type to another, we call it energy transfer or energy transformation. A toaster changes electrical energy into heat energy to toast your bread.
Stored energy is energy waiting to be used, like a stretched spring. Transferred energy is energy on the move, changing from one type into another.
Energy has names like kinetic, potential, heat, light, sound, and chemical, and it can transfer or transform from one type to another.
Watch it
Where it sits
Learn first
Nothing; this is a starting point.
Where this leads
Jobs that lean on this skill. Follow one to see everything it is built on.
8 questions wait behind this lesson, each with its answer explained. Every answer feeds the sky: stars light as they are learned, and dim when it is time to come back.