Where does energy go when it seems to have disappeared?

1 Answer
May 27, 2016

Nowhere.It is rather transferred in other form of energy in an isolated system

Explanation:

Ok this is an interesting question

There is law called Law of conservation of energy which theoretically states "the total energy of an isolated system remains constant—it is said to be conserved over time. Energy can neither be created nor destroyed; rather, it transforms from one form to another."

I'll tell you what this means it says energy never be destroyed nor can it be created examples work best in understanding physics here is one

Let us say I take a ball on top of a building and you are standing at the bottom of the building to catch it so that ball must have some potential energy with reference to you (ground) as the ball has mass at the top Now say I drop it you will see ball accelerating towards yourself (ground) so you will see it acquiring kinetic energy as it is moving now here potential energy of ball seems to have disappeared or destroyed but no actually potential energy of ball is being transfered in kinetic energy.Now since you are a good catcher you catch the ball now you will say where did the kinetic energy go it is rather converted is potential energy in your hands.

So in isolated system (that means our system in which ball was falling) energy is not exhausted or destroyed it is rather transformed into other form of energy

so total energy in a system always remains same

Videos always help you understand better than text