Power and Energy – There is a Difference?

Introduction

One Wednesday night in physic class, my professor made the statement that “power and energy is not the same thing”. This became an interesting topic for me not because I disagreed, but because I have been misusing the terms. You might have heard people use the terms "power" and "energy" almost duplicate, that's only because they don't understand the facts about what these things really are.

Power and Energy – There is a difference. What is the difference? In this paper, I want to explain that in the world of physics power and energy do go hand in hand, but they're not the same thing. There is a difference, and there is an easy explanation.

What is Energy?

Energy is defined as effort; capacity for performing work; the resources for producing such power (Merriam-Webster 1999). Authors (Kilpatrick and Francis, 2010) wrote that “energy is one of the most fundamental and far-reaching concepts in the physics world view “(p. 116). These authors also stated that it is not easy to give energy a precise definition. After long hours of researching and reading many definitions for energy. I liked the definition that Professor Whitlock gave in class, “energy is the ability to do work and work is the change in energy”. In a simpler term energy is the ability to change things.

We have often used the term energy freely. For example, you may have heard someone say eating a big meal gives you energy or that my three-year old has a lot of energy. Did you know that a bouncing ball, a gallon of gas, or a burning fire also have energy? I didn’t either until I fully understood the concept of energy. Since energy is the ability to change things, it can change the temperature, shape, speed, po...

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... the measure of how long he can maintain the production of power. Power is the rate at which energy is converted. Whenever energy changes forms, or moves from place to place, the rate at which it makes those changes is power.

Summary

What I learned is that energy and power is not the same thing. The Watt is a unit of power that is equal to one Joule of energy being converted every second. Energy is what one delivers and power is the rate at which it is delivered.

References

Danish Wind Industry Association. Retrieved April 19, 2011 from

http://www.windpower.org/en/stat/unitsene.htm

Kirkpatrick, L. & Francis G. (2010). Physics: A Conceptual World View (7th ed.). Energy (pp. 115-134) CA: Brooks/Cole.

Merriam-Webster. (1999). Webster’s New Explorer Dictionary (pp. 172, 408). Springfield, MA: Federal Street Press.