The Energy Detective

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!