Chemistry / Unit 4 Chem 0627 short lesson, about 20 seconds
Law of Conservation of Energy
Captions available
The idea
During a chemical or physical change, energy changes from one form into another but is never created or destroyed overall.
In practice
Gasoline's stored chemical potential energy converts into the kinetic energy of a car's moving pistons, not into additional energy overall.
Where people slip
A reaction that seems to produce energy "from nothing" is converting some unmeasured input form; it never actually breaks this law.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
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