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Learn Energy, Work and Power: 68 Physics Flashcards from the Joule to E = mc²

Learn energy, work and power with 68 real flashcards: joules, kilowatt-hours, Lagrangian, Noether's theorem, ATP, Carnot's theorem and E = mc², plus a study plan.

Energy, work and power symbols — lightning bolt, pendulum, turbine and sun — on floating flashcards

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Deck MO3731 – Energy, Work & Power (68 cards) is less a mechanics drill than a tour of energy across all of science: from Leibniz's vis viva to Hawking radiation, from ATP to the radioactive heat that drives plate tectonics. That breadth is its strength — and the reason you need a plan to learn it.

Study this deck: Energy, Work & Power

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Energy

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Real cards from the deck

FrontBack
Joule in terms of base units1 joule = 1 kg·m²·s⁻²
Kilowatt-hourEnergy delivered by one kilowatt of power for one hour, equal to 3.6 million joules
LagrangianKinetic energy minus potential energy (L = T − V)
Noether's theoremConservation of energy is a consequence of the translational symmetry of time
How many watts can a human sustain all day?About 150 watts maximum
What provides more than half of Earth's internal heat budget?Radioactive decay of atoms in Earth's core
How much energy equals 1 kg of rest mass?9×10¹⁶ joules, equivalent to 21.5 megatonnes of TNT
Carnot's theoremThere are strict limits to how efficiently heat can be converted into work in a cyclic process

What the 68 cards cover

  • Units: joule, watt, kilowatt-hour, erg (CGS), foot-pound (imperial).
  • Classical mechanics: kinetic vs potential energy, mechanical energy, work as W = ∫ F · dr, frame-dependence of work, Hamiltonian, Lagrangian, energy as a scalar.
  • Thermodynamics: first law, heat vs work in transit, heat engines, transducers, Carnot's theorem, entropy, reversible vs irreversible processes, waste heat, heat death of the universe.
  • Chemistry and biology: activation energy, Arrhenius equation, Boltzmann factor e^(−E/kT), ATP/ADP, mitochondria, glucose, catabolism, photosynthesis, basal metabolic rate, MET.
  • Earth and cosmos: Earth's energy budget, U-235, K-40 and Th-232, orogenesis, solar fusion, nucleosynthesis, Penrose process.
  • Modern physics: E = mc², rest energy, pair creation, Planck relation E = hf, de Broglie λ = h/p, stress-energy tensor.

How to study it

Split the deck by field, not by order. Units (cards 2, 14–18) and mechanics (5–8, 19–22) form your first session; biology (26–37) and Earth science (38–43) the second; relativity and quantum (44–53, 60–63) the third. Thermodynamics (54–59, 64–68) closes the loop. Cards 13 and 62 both ask for E = mc², and 4 and 67 both state conservation — merge each pair.

Write the formulas the title promises. Despite "Work & Power", the deck never gives KE = ½mv², PE = mgh, the work-energy theorem (W = ΔKE) or P = W/t, and no card actually calculates anything. Add five cards like "A 2 kg ball at 3 m/s has KE = ? → 9 J" and "100 J in 4 s = ? W → 25 W". The human-power cards make good anchors: 150 W sustained over an 8-hour shift is only 1.2 kWh (4.32 MJ) — a neat kilowatt-hour conversion to drill.

The mechanics groundwork is in our guide to kinematics and Newton's laws; for the heat side, continue with thermodynamics and fluid mechanics.

Find the deck by its code MO3731 in the Flip It library.

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