1. ENERGY
5th Grade

2. What is Mechanical Energy?
Mechanical energy: is the combination of all the potential and kinetic energy that something has.
This is the energy we use everyday to physically move things. When you move your chair from one place to another you are using mechanical energy.

3. Mechanical Energy This windup toy has a key attached to a spring.
When you turn the key, you wind up, or tighten, the spring, giving the toy potential energy.
The tighter it is wound up the more potential energy it has stored.
When the toy is moving, it has kinetic energy.
Since the spring is still partly wound up, the toy also has some potential energy left.
The toy’s mechanical energy is a combination of its potential energy and its kinetic energy.

4. What is solar Energy? Solar calculators
Solar Energy: energy that comes from the sun.
The word solar means “of the sun.”
People use solar cells that change light energy from the sun into electricity.
Solar calculators
Solar collector panels to heat swimming pools
Solar panels that provide light and power appliances in homes or other buildings.
Although Solar Energy is free, Solar cells & collectors are expensive.
A DE video clip on the 7 other forms of energy has been hyperlinked to this slide.

5. Solar Energy?
Without solar energy, Earth would be just a ball of frozen rock with no life.
The sun is the source of almost all energy on Earth.
Light from the sun helps plants make food and oxygen.
Its energy is stored in fossil fuels- coal, oil, and natural gas that come from long-dead plants
and animals.
The sun’s energy is also the source of weather.
A DE video clip on the 7 other forms of energy has been hyperlinked to this slide.

6. Other forms of energy come from the sun directly.
Energy from the sun travels as radiation.
The sun provides different types of radiation.
Light ( radiation we see)
Heat ( radiation we feel)
X rays
Ultraviolet rays
Radio waves, which (we hear as static on radios)
some of these rays can be dangerous.
A BrainPop video on Solar Energy is hyperlinked to this slide.

7. Chemical energy
Chemical energy: This is energy that can be released by a chemical reaction,
such as : burning fuel or digestion. .
When it is not being used, it is potential energy.
A chemical reaction is needed to change this potential energy into kinetic energy.
Our muscles get energy from the food we eat. The
potential energy stored in food is chemical energy.
When it’s released, it gives us kinetic energy to move.
Chemical energy in fuel is used to keep this remote-controlled helicopter flying in the air.

8. What is Electricity?
Electricity, or electric energy-: energy that comes from an electric current.
An electric current results from the movement of electrons.
Electrons are particles found in atoms. You can see some effects of electric energy when you use appliances. ( Example: copper wire).
You may have even felt electric energy. Have you ever walked across a rug on a dry day and then touched a doorknob? You probably felt electric energy in the form of a small shock (static electricity or
electricity that is not moving).
A DE video on static electricity has been hyperlinked to this slide.