A-LIGNing Perspectives: Forces and Energy
What actually happens to an object at rest when a force acts on it? Other than the fact that it begins to move, it now has something called kinetic energy. This comes from the effort, or work, that the force does on the object.
This ability to do work is what allows forces to affect things around them. Energy, in all senses of the word, is simply the result of that work. In your daily life, many of the people with whom you interact or the places you frequent likely have remnants of “forces” that you’ve applied to them. Other than kinetic energy, the results of your actions may have an effect that doesn’t immediately translate into something visible. For example, imagine you are pulling back a rubber band. The further you pull, the more force you apply to the band. According to Newton’s third law, the band is also applying this force to you. But the band isn’t necessarily moving now, even after you have applied this force to it. However, you know that once you release it, the band will instantly snap forward.
This potential to move is called potential energy. In this case, elastic potential energy. But for your experiences, potential energy can take many forms. It could be anything from being energized from taking a long nap to holding back feelings you have for another person. Just like a stretched rubber band that holds energy until it’s released, the potential in your life builds up until you decide to act on it. Whether it's the motivation to pursue a goal, the courage to express your emotions, or the energy saved for an important moment, that stored potential only becomes meaningful when it’s converted into action, much like energy transforming into motion in the physical world. The key is recognizing when and how to release that potential to create the outcomes you desire.
Another key concept in physics is the law of conservation of energy, more commonly stated as “energy cannot be created or destroyed." This concept, once fully grasped, offers profound insights into both physics and life experience. Let’s say you slide a box across the ground. You applied a force and did work on the box, giving it kinetic energy. However, this box won’t slide forever and will eventually slow to a stop. What happened to its energy? The friction from the ground that stopped the sliding box converted kinetic energy into thermal energy, or heat. So the box should actually be slightly warmer after its journey. This is hard to notice at first glance, but knowing this law allows you to acknowledge the existence of this effect without directly observing it.
Applied to life, you must always acknowledge every effect of your actions, even those that seem insignificant. For example, the energy you invest in building or maintaining a relationship doesn’t disappear, even if the relationship changes or ends. The time, care, and support you give might transform into personal growth, valuable memories, or life lessons. In the same way that energy in physics changes form, the impact of your effort in relationships carries on in different ways, contributing to who you are and the experiences you take forward.
In physics, this fact is often heard as “the total energy within the system is constant”. But sometimes, it isn’t. And this doesn’t mean that the laws of physics have some random exceptions, but it just means that the “system” in question was constructed without considering external forces. Returning to the example of the sliding box, the “system” can be considered to just be the box. In that case, you will observe that the total energy after the box had stopped sliding has decreased. However, friction, in this case, is an external force because we didn’t include the floor, nor did we consider air resistance when constructing the system. When now including the box, floor, and the air in our system, the total thermal energy of the system should equal the starting kinetic energy of the box.
Viewing this law as the interchanging of energy forms within a system is a handy tool for physicists and should be for you as well. Resources, progress towards goals, or emotions can all represent different forms of energy. When constructing the “system” for anything you aim to achieve, you must consider all external forces as well as all forms of energy. After some time, when you total your energies, it should be “equivalent” to when you started. If something doesn’t add up, you’ve missed something and should reconstruct your system to consider all angles.
In all of these cases, the law of conservation of energy applies to more than just physical systems. It’s a reminder that the energy we put into life—whether emotional, relational, or creative—doesn’t just disappear. It changes form, sometimes in subtle ways, but always leaves an imprint on the world around us.
