Day 100: Double LOL, aka ROTFL

 

My colleague Ben gave me this idea. He showed me how you can write a second energy bar chart for objects that are not in your system and show how the energy that is transferred out of the main system is transferred into the secondary system. No matter the system definition, energy is transferred and stored, but what changes is simply how we are tracking that. This is definitely something I didn’t understand after my first year teaching energy this way (essentially from a 1st law of thermodynamics perspective), and I’m sure it will become more nuanced as I get more used to it. One thing I am thinking about emphasizing more next year is the link between free body diagrams and energy transfer, in that forces in or against the direction of motion cause energy to transfer, though sometimes that is within the system and sometimes  adding to or taking from  the energy stored in the system, depending on the definition. Lots to think about here.

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