Allow about 20 mins

Energy analysis can seem abstracted to some people, but it is one of the most powerful ideas in physics and can help us to interrogate the natural world. Knowing how much energy is needed to heat up enough water to make a cup of tea matters if you are thinking about energy efficiency, but this analysis also forms part of the calculations carried out by climate scientists when predicting what the sea level rises will be as global temperatures change. Some of the principles of energy analysis are universal across physics and all contexts and here we begin that journey to ask questions and find answers. At this stage we restrict ourselves to four common energy stores that are easy to quantify (kinetic, gravitational, thermal and elastic), to help students build their confidence before these ideas are developed later.

In this video we make the case that energy analysis is a way to describe and quantify real and observable events and answer useful and important questions.