Imagine you're a detective tracking a suspect through a city. Energy is exactly like that suspect — it NEVER disappears, it just moves from place to place, changing disguises along the way. When you lift a ball, energy transfers from your chemical store (the food you ate) to the ball's gravitational potential store. Drop it, and that energy transfers to the kinetic store as it speeds up. Hit the ground? The energy transfers to the thermal store of the floor (it gets slightly warmer) and the sound you hear. Same amount of energy, just different addresses. Your job as a physicist is to track EXACTLY where energy comes from, where it goes, and how it gets there!
This introduction covers The Energy Detective within Energy Stores & Systems for GCSE Physics. Revise Energy Stores & Systems in Energy for GCSE Physics with 14 exam-style questions and 30 flashcards. This is a high-frequency topic, so it is worth revising until the explanation feels precise and repeatable. It is section 1 of 20 in this topic. Use this introduction to connect the idea to the wider topic before moving on to questions and flashcards.
Practice questions for Energy Stores & Systems
Which energy store is associated with an object that is moving?
Explain what is meant by a 'closed system' in terms of energy.
Quick recall flashcards
What is kinetic energy?
Energy stored in any object that is moving
What is thermal energy?
Energy stored due to the random kinetic energy of particles (temperature)