Work, Energy, and Power
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Provided by: Crash Course|Published on: October 3, 2022
Videos
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This resource has been reviewed by SubjectToClimate's climate scientists and verified for scientific accuracy and up-to-date information. Learn about our review process →
Synopsis
- This video defines work, energy, and power and describes how these concepts are related.
- Students will learn about the equations for work, kinetic energy, gravitational potential energy, spring potential energy, and average power.
- The video also explains what a system is and compares non-conservative and conservative systems, specifically highlighting the example of a simple pendulum.

Subjects: Physics, Mathematics
Authors: Crash Course
Region: Global
Languages: English
Teaching Materials
Positives
- The video animations demonstrate key concepts and display important equations and definitions.
- Students can see how mathematical concepts in trigonometry and calculus relate to physics and the real world.
Additional Prerequisites
- Students should already be familiar with forces including applied, gravitational, frictional, and spring forces.
- The last 30 seconds of the video are credits and sponsors.
- Many high school students will not be familiar with the calculus concept of integrals, which is mentioned in the video.
Differentiation
- This video can be used in math classes to apply vectors or trigonometry functions to real-world calculations.
- Understanding the basics of work, energy, and power is an important precursor to learning about energy sources, which is a key issue in climate change.
- Students can discuss Earth as a system and how climate change is impacting the energy flow in this system.
The video simplifies the concept of power, energy, and work and provides a basic illustration of how energy works in a system. There is a high confidence to use this resource for teaching.
Teaching Tips
Standards
Resource Type and Format
Scientist Reviewed
This resource has been reviewed by SubjectToClimate's climate scientists and verified for scientific accuracy and up-to-date information. Our review process ensures that every resource in our library reflects the current state of climate science.
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