Learning path: Energy
The concepts to learn before Energy, in order. Each step links to its page and, where one exists, its quiz.
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Your path
- MotionDirect prerequisite
The change in an object's position over time relative to a reference frame. Kinematics describes motion using position, velocity (the rate of change of position) and acceleration (the rate of change of velocity), without yet asking what causes it.
- ForcesDirect prerequisite
A push or pull interaction between two objects, capable of changing an object's velocity. Newton's three laws of motion describe how forces and motion relate: a body keeps its state of motion unless acted on by a net force (first law), net force equals mass times acceleration, F = ma (second law), and forces between two bodies are equal and opposite (third law).
- EnergyYour goal
The capacity to do work, taking forms such as kinetic energy (associated with motion) and potential energy (associated with position or configuration, such as height in a gravitational field). The total energy of an isolated system is conserved: energy changes form but is never created or destroyed.