Mass, Force, Power, Torque & Energy
If you've been half as interested as I am about cars and the marvels they bring to today's technology, you've seen a lot of terminology thrown around -- words such as mass, force, torque, work, power and energy. What do these words really mean, and are they interchangeable?
In this article, we will help to bring all of this terminology together, give some examples of when each is used and even try a few calculations along the way to get the hang of it.
Throughout this article, we will refer to different types of units. In most of the world, the International System of Units (SI - from the French Le Système International d'Unités), also referred to as the metric system, is accepted as the standard set of units. This system contains most of the metric units you are used to, like meters and kilograms, but also includes units for many other physical and engineering properties. Even the United States has officially adopted the SI system of units, but English Engineering Units (like pounds and feet) are still in everyday use. Before we jump into explaining these terms, we need to start with some basics. We'll start with mass, and work our way up to energy.
What is Mass?
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of Mass Gram (g) 1 g = 0.001 kg Kilogram (kg) 1 kg = 2.2 lbm 1 kg = 0.0685 slug English: |
It is important to understand that mass is independent of your position in space. Your body's mass on the moon is the same as its mass on Earth, because the number of atoms is the same. The Earth's gravitational pull, on the other hand, decreases as you move farther away from the Earth. Therefore, you can lose weight by changing your elevation, but your mass remains the same. You can also lose weight by living on the moon, but again, your mass is the same.
Mass is important for calculating how quickly things accelerate when we apply a force to them. What determines how fast a car can accelerate? You probably know that your car accelerates slower if it has five adults in it than if it has just one. We'll explore this relationship between mass, force and acceleration in a little more detail after we talk about force.
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