The forms of energy
Energy turns up in a number of different forms, and each of them can be put to work. These are the six you are expected to know.
Heat energy
What boils water, dries clothes and drives a steam engine.
Electrical energy
What arrives along a wire and runs every device in the house.
Magnetic energy
What holds a magnet to a fridge door and turns a motor.
Mechanical energy
What a moving or a raised object holds. The rest of this chapter is about this one.
Light energy
What the sun sends, and what a plant uses to make food.
Sound energy
What travels from a drum to your ear and sets the eardrum moving.
Where the chapter goes from here
Of these six, only mechanical energy is taken further in this chapter. The others are named here so you know what company it keeps.