Equations · equation
Conservation of Mechanical Energy
Mechanics · 1847
- Equation
- K + U = constant (no friction or other dissipation)
- Field
- Mechanics
- Symbols
- K kinetic energy · U potential energy · their sum unchanged as one turns into the other
- Year
- 1847
Significance
A pendulum trades height for speed and back; a roller coaster the same; a comet the same over centuries. Helmholtz stated the general principle in 1847 — that when the sum seems to fall, the difference has gone into heat — and it became the first law of thermodynamics. Bernoulli's equation is this per unit volume of a flowing fluid.
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