Energy Swaps Costumes
Conversions — and the total that never changes
What this lesson covers
Why it matters
Inside a torch: chemical soup becomes electric current becomes light. Nothing was created, nothing lost — energy just changed clothes, twice, in your palm.
Predict first
When a mango falls from the tree, its energy converts from…
Height-energy pours into speed-energy all the way down. The total stays the same — conservation of energy.
- potential to kinetic — correct
- kinetic to potential
- nothing — it loses energy
What you do
Label the energy conversion in each machine: what goes in, what comes out.
Check yourself
An electric fan converts electrical energy mainly into…
Current in, spin out (plus a little heat and hum — every machine leaks some).
Energy can be…
The total always balances — friction just converts motion into (less useful) heat.
In a hydroelectric dam, the energy order is…
Stored height → falling water → spinning generator → your fan.
- kinetic energy (motion of the blades and air) — correct
- light energy
- chemical energy
- changed from one form to another, never created or destroyed — correct
- created by big machines
- destroyed by friction
- potential → kinetic → electrical — correct
- electrical → kinetic → potential
- kinetic → chemical → light