Force... What is energy's role?

Momento

Is it safe to say that "Energy" is the measurement of work done in a system? And that Force is crucial for Work to be converted?

Drakkith

I believe that is pretty much the definition of energy, the ability to do work.

I'd say that force is the reason work happens. If a particle didn't feel a force from another particle, nothing would ever change and no work could be done.

Momento

A very nice explanation! Makes sense it can't be created or destroyed you can't create a measuring unit right ?

I totally agree! Thinking of all kinda of energy I can't find force out of the picture and besides! W = F x D!

Momento

If I had a debate and the topic of energy came up, its possibile to say that energy is the measurement of work done? It makes more sense that way to a person that keeps asking where did it originate from.

haruspex

Not really. That only deals in terms of changes in energy. In view of the equivalence of mass and energy, and the affect these have on gravity (according to GR), there must be a sense of absolute total of energy of a system.
Wrt Drakkith's definition of energy as the ability to do work, I don't see how that deals with heat energy, particularly in a system at uniform temperature.

Drakkith

Using the basic definitions of what energy is, I would say yes. Just remember that energy is potential work. An asteroid flying through space has a lot of kinetic energy, but that doesn't mean that it will hit something and perform work.

Have you considered potential energy? Matter has with it the potential to cause work if it annihilates with antimatter, thus it has potential energy. Not only that, but the bonding of matter in different ways, such as an electron falling down an energy level and emitting a photon, also has the ability to do work. Since energy is conserved the atom that the electron occupies is now less massive than before.

I see it as everything has potential energy. A ball on top of a hill doesn't necessarily roll down the hill. It could be stuck on a rock or something. It still has the potential to be dislodged and roll down, which means that it still has potential energy whether or not it will roll down now, two weeks from now, or never.

Momento

Thank you everyone for this very very interesting topic! So far I've understood energy much more clearly than I have before so as the main role of force and without it work can't really be done! I looked upon so many rules in physics that really do relate in many ways!

I really appreciate all you're effort for this!

Best Regards,
Momento