The Physics Classroom: The Work-Energy Relationship: Bar Chart Illustrations

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written by Tom Henderson

This page is a tutorial that features bar charts to explore the relationship between work and energy. Work-Energy bar charts are a conceptual tool which depict the amount of each form of energy within a system as it undergoes a particular motion or process. This resource offers comprehensive guidance in how to read and understand energy bar charts, animations that illustrate the processes described, and example problems with solutions. It is part of The Physics Classroom, a collection of online tutorials written for high school physics students.

https://www.physicsclassroom.com/Class/energy/u5l2c.cfm

Subjects	Levels	Resource Types
Classical Mechanics - Work and Energy = Conservation of Energy = Work	- High School - Lower Undergraduate	- Instructional Material = Activity = Tutorial - Audio/Visual = Movie/Animation

Intended Users	Formats	Ratings
- Learners - Educators	- text/html - image/jpeg	Currently 1.0/5 Rated 1.0 stars by 1 person Want to rate this material? Login here!

Access Rights:: Free access
Restriction:: © 2004 The Physics Classroom
Keywords:: animation, conservation of energy, energy, energy bar graphs, friction, kinetic energy, mechanical energy, potential energy, tutorial, work, work-energy theorem
Record Cloner:: Metadata instance created November 20, 2007 by Caroline Hall
Record Updated:: July 19, 2011 by Lyle Barbato
Last Update when Cataloged:: November 6, 2006
Other Collections:: The Physics Front

wrong physics and bad pedagogy

Author: John Denker
Posted: December 14, 2010 at 3:57PM
Source: The Physics Front collection

This page is worse than useless.  It bears no useful resemblance to real physics.  Other pages on the classroom.com site reinforce the same misconceptions.

Some of the particulars include:

This page mutilates the distinction between conservation and constancy.

This page says Fspring is <> while Ftens is <>.   But what if we have a spring under tension?  The whole approach is profoundly misguided.

It says <> ... but AFAICT this is completely untrue.  And even if it were true, it would still be bad pedagogy and wrong physics.

» reply

Re: wrong physics and bad pedagogy

Author: John Denker
Posted: Dec 14, 2010 5:02PM UTC

The previous comment was distorted by the markup system.
It was supposed to say:

> This page is
> worse than useless.  It bears no useful resemblance
> to real physics.  Other pages on the classroom.com
> site reinforce the same misconceptions.
>
> Some of the
> particulars include:
>
> This page mutilates the distinction
> between conservation and constancy.
>
> This page says Fspring is ''internal'' while Ftens is ''external''.
> But what if we have a spring under tension?
> The whole approach is profoundly misguided.
>
> It says ''There
> are many sophisticated and worthy ways of explaining
> and distinguishing between internal and external forces.
> Many of these ways are commonly discussed at great
> length in physics textbooks - particularly college-level
> physics textbooks.'' ... but AFAICT this is completely
> untrue.  And even if it were true, it would still
> be bad pedagogy and wrong physics.
«»

» reply

Re: wrong physics and bad pedagogy

Author: Bruce, ComPADRE Dir
Posted: Dec 15, 2010 1:21PM UTC

John, the author of this material is working on changes to this presentation, in particular the use of the terms internal and external as short-hand for conservative and non-conservative.

» reply

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<a href="https://www.compadre.org/portal/items/detail.cfm?ID=6132">Henderson, Tom. The Physics Classroom: The Work-Energy Relationship: Bar Chart Illustrations. November 6, 2006.</a>

AIP Format

T. Henderson, (2004), WWW Document, (https://www.physicsclassroom.com/Class/energy/u5l2c.cfm).

AJP/PRST-PER

T. Henderson, The Physics Classroom: The Work-Energy Relationship: Bar Chart Illustrations (2004), <https://www.physicsclassroom.com/Class/energy/u5l2c.cfm>.

APA Format

Henderson, T. (2006, November 6). The Physics Classroom: The Work-Energy Relationship: Bar Chart Illustrations. Retrieved May 1, 2025, from https://www.physicsclassroom.com/Class/energy/u5l2c.cfm

Chicago Format

Henderson, Tom. The Physics Classroom: The Work-Energy Relationship: Bar Chart Illustrations. November 6, 2006. https://www.physicsclassroom.com/Class/energy/u5l2c.cfm (accessed 1 May 2025).

MLA Format

Henderson, Tom. The Physics Classroom: The Work-Energy Relationship: Bar Chart Illustrations. 2004. 6 Nov. 2006. 1 May 2025 <https://www.physicsclassroom.com/Class/energy/u5l2c.cfm>.

BibTeX Export Format

@misc{ Author = "Tom Henderson", Title = {The Physics Classroom: The Work-Energy Relationship: Bar Chart Illustrations}, Volume = {2025}, Number = {1 May 2025}, Month = {November 6, 2006}, Year = {2004} }

Refer Export Format

%A Tom Henderson %T The Physics Classroom: The Work-Energy Relationship: Bar Chart Illustrations %D November 6, 2006 %U https://www.physicsclassroom.com/Class/energy/u5l2c.cfm %O text/html

EndNote Export Format

%0 Electronic Source %A Henderson, Tom %D November 6, 2006 %T The Physics Classroom: The Work-Energy Relationship: Bar Chart Illustrations %V 2025 %N 1 May 2025 %8 November 6, 2006 %9 text/html %U https://www.physicsclassroom.com/Class/energy/u5l2c.cfm

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The Physics Classroom: The Work-Energy Relationship: Bar Chart Illustrations:

Covers the Same Topic As Modeling Physics.org: Qualitative Energy Storage and Conservation with Bar Graphs

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