Question

Explain why both of the following statements are true. Statement 1: The total kinetic and potential energy of an object is called mechanical energy . Statement 2: The total kinetic and potential energy of the particles in an object is called thermal energy.

Answer 1

Statement 1 is true because the object can do mechanical work on expense of kinetic energy or potential energy. E.g moving water (has both kinetic energy and potential energy) can rotate the blades of a turbine, thus does mechanical work which converts into electrical energy finally.

Answer 2

Statement 2 is true because kinetic+ potential energy defines the temperature of the object. E.g for an ideal gas pV = NkT, p is the pressure which the molecules of the gas exert on the walls of the container.So, the pressure p is actually rate of momentum transferred per unit area of the walls. This momentum of particles corresponds to their kinetic energy.
Similarly, for an interacting (non-ideal) gas or liquid or solid, the potential energy of interaction of particles is also responsible for temperature.

Answer 3

Thank you! This helped out a lot!

Answer 4

close the question if you are done :D