Energy Stores and Systems
Energy never just disappears - it moves between different energy stores like a cosmic game of pass-the-parcel. There are eight main types: thermal, kinetic, gravitational potential, elastic potential, chemical, magnetic, electrostatic, and nuclear energy stores.
Energy gets transferred in four main ways: mechanically (forces doing work), electrically (moving charges), by heating, or by radiation. When you boil water in a kettle, electrical energy transfers to the water's thermal energy store, making it hotter.
Work done is just another way of saying energy transferred. When you throw a ball upwards, chemical energy from your muscles transfers to kinetic energy in your arm, then to the ball's kinetic and gravitational potential energy stores. In closed systems, the total energy never changes - it just moves around.
Remember: Energy is like money - it can't be created or destroyed, only moved from one account to another!