What is energy? - a new way to visualize energy

 Among all the blogs that I have written till now, this is the most interesting and the one most close to my heart. Physics is the study of different forms of energy for example- the study of mechanical energy is mechanics, the study of electric energy is electricity, the study of magnetic energy is magnetism, the study of heat energy comes under the section of heat and study of sound energy comes under sound. But amidst all the advancements in the field of physics, the base of physics remains a vague topic. Here's what most books say about energy and work:

energy - capacity of doing work

work - transfer of energy

This definition is correct but it doesn't do any good as it defines work in terms of energy and energy in terms of work which is meaningless.

So what is the actual definition of energy??

It turns out that the clear and correct definition of energy doesn't exist. We can only understand it by analogies. 

So here is a nice analogy:

"Imagine many cupboards, each with a label on it which reads  - mechanical energy, heat energy and so on.

So energy can be imagined as balls inside those cupboards which can only transfer from one cupboard to another or in the different sections of the same cupboard."

This is what the law of conservation of energy states that these balls(energy) can neither be created nor be destroyed it can only be transferred from one place to another.

Conservative forces: Now imagine that initially, we have some balls in the kinetic energy section of the cupboard 1( mechanical energy), if a force acts which displaces some balls from the kinetic energy section to the potential energy section without DISSIPATING it out of the cupboard of mechanical energy, then that force is called conservative force

Non-conservative forces: Now, if a force acts in such a manner so as to displace balls from cupboard 1(mechanical energy) to cupboard 2(heat energy) then that force is said to be non-conservative and the act of transferring the ball from one cupboard to another is called DISSIPATION. so non-conservative force dissipate energy while conservative forces don't.

THAT'S THE BEST WE CAN DO TO UNDERSTAND ENERGY!!

Thanks for reading!!

-Arvin Gupta