POTENTIAL ENERGY AND ENERGY CONSERVATION

We’ll discuss the following:

•Potential Energy
•Mechanical Energy and Its Conservation
•Problem Solving Using Conservation of Mechanical Energy
•Conservative and Nonconservative Forces
•The Law of Conservation of Energy
•Energy Conservation with Dissipative Forces: Solving Problems
We learnt in the last chapter that a particle gains or loses KE because it
interacts with other objects that exert forces on it. We summarized this
fact by the Work-KE theorem: Wnet  K .

In many situations, it seems as though energy has been stored in a

system, to be recovered later. If you raise a stone over your head, the
work you do is stored in the system, energy that is later converted into KE
when you let the stone fall. This example points to the idea of an energy
associated with the position of bodies in a system. This kind of energy
signifies the potential or possibility for work to be done. For this reason, it
is called POTENTIAL ENERGY.

We now have two ways to

describe what happens
when a body falls. One
way is to say that
gravitational potential
energy (GPE) decreases
and the falling body’s KE
increases. The other way
is to say that earth’s
gravity does work on the
body causing its KE to
increase. The two
descriptions are equivalent,
as we’ll see soon.
Gravitational Potential Energy:

The figures show a body moving vertically (along the y axis). The forces
 
acting are mg and possibly others: Fother . In Fig (a), the body moves down
from a height y1 to a height y2 . The work done by gravity is positive:

Wg  Fs  mg ( y1  y 2 )  mgy1  mgy 2  

This expression also gives the

correct work when the body
moves upward and y2  y1 (Fig
(b)), which means ( y1  y2 ) is
negative, and Wg  0 . The
equation
Wg  mgy1  mgy2
Gives the work in terms of the
quantity mgy at the beginning
and end of the displacement.
We call this quantity the
gravitational potential energy (GPE):
  U g  mgy (gravitational potential energy)  
Note: The value of GPE depends on the choice of origin ( y  0 ) and the
good news is you can choose the origin anywhere you like, but you must
choose an origin.

The work of gravity and the change in GPE are related simply:
Wg   (U g2  U g1 )   (mgy2  mgy1 )   U g
The change in GPE is the negative of the work done by gravity. When a
body moves up, gravity does negative work and U  U 2  U1 is positive
(GPE  ). When a body moves down, gravity does positive work and
U  U 2  U1 is negative (GPE  ).
Conservation of Mechanical Energy (Gravity only)

Too see what GPE is good for, suppose mg is the only force acting on a
body. The body is falling freely with no air drag. Let its speed at point y1
be v1 and that point y2 be v2 . According to the work-KE theorem,
  Wnet  Wg  K 2  K1   (U 2  U1 )  K 2  K1  
Put U  mgy and K  mv 2 / 2 and get
1 2 1
K 2  U 2  K1  U1  mv2  mgy2  mv12  mgy1 (if only gravity does work )
2 2
The sum ( K  U ) is known as the mechanical energy ( E ) of the system.
(By “system” we mean the body of mass m and the earth considered
together, because GPE is a shared property of both bodies.) The
mechanical energies at y1 and y2 are K1  U1  E1 and K 2  U 2  E2 . The last
equation simplifies to
E  K  U  constant (if only gravity does work )
This is our first example of the CONSERVATION OF MECHANICAL ENERGY.
Another way to write this is: E  K  U  0, which means: if KE
increases, then PE will decrease by the same amount etc.

Problem Solving Using Conservation of Mechanical Energy

Which method is best for solving problems?

Newton’s laws: useful when forces are constant.

Work and energy: useful when acceleration is not uniform.

Words of caution: Both methods are applicable to all problems in

classical mechanics. For systems involving constant acceleration,
Newton’s laws are usually the better route. For variable acceleration,
Work and Energy is better. Usually, when springs (elastic forces) are
involved, one uses work and energy. Pay attention to the examples.
 Example: A swinging pendulum

Refer to the figure. A pendulum

consists of a small bob of mass
m suspended by a massless cord
of length  . The bob is released
(without a push) at t  0 , where
the cord makes an angle    o to
the vertical.

(a) Describe the motion of the

bob in terms of kinetic energy
and potential energy.

Then determine the speed of the bob (b) as a function of position θ as it

swings back and forth, and (c) at the lowest point of the swing.

(d) Find the tension in the cord, FT . Ignore friction and air resistance.

Solution: We’ll use energy conservation. ( F  ma is applicable, but


cumbersome, since a is not constant.) Let us take U  0 , the zero of GPE,
at the lowest point of the motion ( y  0 ). (Note that we can choose GPE=0
anywhere we like. But we have chosen it, we have to stick with it.) Then,
initially the system has a GPE of mgyo and zero KE. From the figure, it is
easy to see that the initial height is yo  (1  cos o ) . When the string
makes an angle of  with the vertical, let the bob’s position and speed be
y and v . The corresponding GPE and KE are mgy and mv 2 / 2 . Hence,
initial and final mechanical energies are
1
Ei  K i  U i  0  mg (1  cos  o ) and E f  K f  U f  mv 2  mg (1  cos  )  
2
(b) Since E f  Ei , we find
1 2
  mv  mg (1  cos  )  mg (1  cos  o )  v 2  2 g (cos   cos  o )  
2
This result is mass-independent.
(c) At the lowest point,   0 , cos   1 , so
  v  2 g (1  cos  o )  

(d) To find the tension, FT , in the string, use Law II:
mv 2 2mg (cos   cos  o )
  FT  mg cos     2mg (cos   cos  o )  
 
 FT  2mg (cos   cos  o )  mg cos   mg (3 cos   2 cos  o )
Elastic Potential Energy: If you stretch a spring, you are doing
work on it, which is stored in the spring until you let go. We call the stored
energy elastic potential energy.

In the last chapter we saw that the

work you do on a spring to change its
elongation from x1 to a new value x2 is
k 2 k 2
  W  x2  x1 (Work done on a spring)  
2 2
where k is the spring constant. This
expression applies to the case where
x1 and x2 are compressions as well.

Meanwhile, the work done by the

spring
k 2 k 2
Ws  x1  x2 (Work done by a spring)
2 2
The subscript “s” stands for spring.
This work depends only on the end
points x1 and x2 , just as the work of
gravity. Hence, we can express this
work done as a potential energy
change: U s   Ws , i.e.,
k k 
U s 2  U s1   Ws    x12  x22 
2 2 
k k 
Or, U s 2  U s1   x22  x12 
2 2 
This expression represents the change of EPE
(elastic potential energy). Again, as for gravity,
introduce a PE function:
k 2
Us  x (Elastic Potential Energy)
2
(This is also known as the potential energy of a
spring.)

The figure shows a graph of this equation. Note the

symmetry: If you change  x to  x , the EPE is
unaffected.
 Example: Two kinds of potential energy

Refer to the figure. A ball of mass m  2.60 kg starting from rest, falls a
vertical distance h  55.0 cm before striking a vertical spring, which it
compresses an amount Y  15.0 cm. Determine the spring constant.
Assume mechanical energy conservation.

Solution:

( K  U ) f  ( K  U )i  
We take the initial state as the state
when the ball is about to be
released (Fig (a)), and the final
state as the state when the spring is
fully compressed (Fig (c)). (The
middle figure has been included
only for clarity.) We take the zero
of GPE at the upper end of the free
spring in Fig (a).
Then,
U i  mgh, K i  0.  
In the final state, we’ll have to
include both GPE and EPE:
1
U f   mgY  kY 2 , K f  0.
2
1
  ( K  U ) f  ( K  U )i  0  mgY  kY 2  mgh.  
2
Solve for k :
2mg (h  Y ) 2(2.6)(9.8)(0.55  0.15)
  k   1590 N/m.  
Y2 0.152
The maximally compressed spring will be expand and project the ball upwards. How
high will the ball rise?

This example is similar to Ex. 5.5 (page 47) of the Workbook. Try it.

CONSERVATIVE AND NON-CONSERVAIVE FORCES

A force is conservative if the work done by the object on an object moving from one point to
another depends only on the initial and final positions of the object, and is independent of the
particular path taken. A conservative force can be a function only of position, and cannot
depend on other variables like time and velocity. We have already seen two examples:
gravity and the spring force. Recall that
k
  Wg   mg ( y2  y1 ) and Ws   ( x22  x12 ).  
2
The work of gravity and that of a spring both depend only on the end points, so they are
conservative. Another property of the work done by a conservative force is:

Work done by a conservative force is zero for a round trip.

It is easy to check that gravity and spring force have this property. (If you throw a ball up, it
reaches a maximum height and returns to your hand with the same speed; so, Wg  0 .
Frictional force is not conservative. Suppose a block moves in a circle of radius r on a
rough horizontal plane. The force of kinetic friction has magnitude f k   mg and is
directed opposite to the displacement. The work it does over a single revolution is
W f    mg (2 r ) . For two revolutions, it is   mg (4 r ) , which are clearly not equal even
though they are both round trips.

Let us now modify our energy conservation equation so as to account for non-conservative
work. Start with work-energy theorem: Wnet  K f  K i . Write the left side as two separate
terms:
  Wc  Wnc  K f  K i  
where the subscripts “c” and “nc” represent “conservative” and “non-conservative”. Recall
that the change in PE is the negative of the work done by the conservative force:
U f  U i  Wc . Thus,
  (U f  U i )  Wnc  K f  K i  
Recast this in a more convenient form:
(U  K ) f  (U  K )i  Wnc  E f  Ei  Wnc
This is law of conservation of energy. Note that Wnc is often (but not always) negative.

I’ll add more examples in the next day or two.