Think of it like one of those things- whose name I forget- where you drop a metal ball and they continue to tick back and forth. Energy is always moved on to something else, even in being used. If energy is released as heat, the things it heats then contain the energy. When those objects cool, the heat is being released to the surrounding environment.
I think one source of confusion is the thought that force is energy. It's not. Force is energy at work.
When a truck is hurtling down the road, it has kinetic energy. The combustion engine translates the energy stored in fuel into torque which turns the wheels and makes the truck go. Some of the energy escapes into the environment in the form of heat from the combustion engine, and chemical reactions which produce the fumes. Some more of that energy is being transfered through friction of the tires on the road which results in heat.
When the truck strikes another car or a wall, that kinetic energy is transfered to the wall or the object. When the truck gets smashed and crumpled, the energy is transfered into all the countless forces that cause metal to bend and tear and glass to shatter and fly. Bending metal is work and gives off heat. Flying debris contains kinetic energy.
The heat given off by the truck while running, and the heat generated during impact, and the heat given off when the gas tank ruptures and causes a catastrophic explosion don't disappear but contribute to the phenomenon known as global warming.
The fact of the matter is no one knows what energy is (i´m talking about Energy in a scientific sense, not abstract like callories etc.). Scientists do a lot of guess work based on little actuall facts, because they are qualified they think they can make the rules.
Light is a form of energy and if you shoot a photon into space it never stops. It bounces of things, has it´s path bent by gravity or has its wavelength altered, but it never stops. dunno what it is or why, no one does.
Ive read loads of books on quantum physics and science, no answers.
Originally posted by DarkCanadian
what do you mean, like a oil tanker colliding with a sedan head on?The huge forward force of the tanker would transfer to the sedan, while the sedan transferrs its smaller forward force to the tanker. The tanker recives the smaller force and therefore slows down a bit. However, the huge force of the tanker would cause the forward momentum of the sedan to decrease, causing stress and finally smashing the sedan to a pulp.
Hey, it always worked that way in the Burnout series...
Or simpler yet..the last thing that goes thru a cat's mind when he's hit by a truck is his ass..3000 pounds goes over 9 or 10 pounds with nothing left over. As long as we were talking about running things over here. 😉