Energy Converter Builder

Energy is the ability to do work or cause change. You cannot see energy directly, but you can see what it does. It makes things move, heat up, glow, or make sounds.

• Solar. Energy that comes from sunlight.
• Mechanical. Energy of moving or spinning things.
• Electrical. Energy carried by electric current.
• Heat. Energy from the movement of tiny particles.
• Light. Energy that travels as electromagnetic waves.
• Sound. Energy that travels as pressure waves through air.

A converter is a device that changes energy from one form into another. The energy does not disappear - it just takes on a new shape.

Real converters are never perfectly efficient. A light bulb converts electrical energy into light, but it also produces some heat. The total amount of energy stays the same, but some goes where we did not intend.

• Solar panel. Sunlight to electricity.
• Electric motor. Electricity to spinning motion.
• Generator. Motion back to electricity.

Energy conversions happen all around you every day.

• Solar panels on rooftops. Convert sunlight into electricity for homes.
• Wind turbines on farms. Convert wind movement into electricity for cities.
• Electric fans. Convert electricity into spinning mechanical motion and then a breeze.
• Speakers. Convert electrical signals into sound waves so you can hear music.
• Steam locomotives. Convert heat from burning fuel into the motion that drives the wheels.

One of the most important rules in all of science is the Law of Conservation of Energy. It states that energy cannot be created or destroyed. It can only change from one form to another.

Every conversion in your chain preserves the total amount of energy. When a solar panel converts sunlight into electricity, no energy vanishes - it just moves into a new form.

This law was first described by scientists in the 1800s and has never been broken by any experiment in history.