Ch 16: Work and Energy for the MCAT: Help and Review
About This Chapter
Who's it for?
Anyone who needs help learning or mastering MCAT material will benefit from taking this course. There is no faster or easier way to prepare for the MCAT. Among those who would benefit are:
- Students who have fallen behind in understanding the relationship between work, energy and power
- Students who struggle with learning disabilities or learning differences, including autism and ADHD
- Students who prefer multiple ways of learning science (visual or auditory)
- Students who have missed class time and need to catch up
- Students who need an efficient way to learn about work and energy for the MCAT
- Students who struggle to understand their teachers
- Students who attend schools without extra science learning resources
How it works:
- Find videos in our course that cover what you need to learn or review.
- Press play and watch the video lesson.
- Refer to the video transcripts to reinforce your learning.
- Test your understanding of each lesson with short quizzes.
- Verify you're ready by completing the Work and Energy for the MCAT chapter exam.
Why it works:
- Study Efficiently: Skip what you know, review what you don't.
- Retain What You Learn: Engaging animations and real-life examples make topics easy to grasp.
- Be Ready on Test Day: Use the Work and Energy for the MCAT chapter exam to be prepared.
- Get Extra Support: Ask our subject-matter experts any work and energy question. They're here to help!
- Study With Flexibility: Watch videos on any web-ready device.
Students will review:
This chapter helps students review the concepts in a work and energy unit of a standard science course. Topics covered include:
- Derived units and sign conventions
- Work done in a gravitational field
- Mechanical advantage
- The work-energy theorem
- Kinetic and potential energy
- Conservation of mechanical energy
- Conservative forces
- The formula for power

1. What is Energy? - Definition and Significance in Nature
Energy is the capacity or ability to perform work, which is significant in causing anything to move within nature. Explore the different types of energy, where it comes from, why it is necessary, and how it is important in natural systems.

2. Work-Energy Theorem: Definition and Application
The work-energy theorem relates the net work done of forces on an object and the change in the kinetic energy of the object. Learn about the definition and application of the work-energy theorem, explore work as a change in energy, discover how the work-energy theorem can be applied to the potential energy of an object, and understand how the increase or decrease in energy is associated with the work-energy theorem.

3. Power: Definition and Mathematics
Power in mathematics refers to how much work can be done in a certain amount of time, meaning the more work that can be done in the same amount of time means more power. Study the definition of power in mathematics and how it is calculated.

4. Kinetic Energy to Potential Energy: Relationship in Different Energy Types
Kinetic energy and potential energy are created differently. In this lesson, we will dive into different types of energy, and how they can be transformed into other types of energy.

5. Conservation of Mechanical Energy
In physics, mechanical energy refers to the power that an object obtains based on its position or movement. Learn about the conservation of mechanical energy, including kinetic and potential mechanical energy. Explore how energy is conserved in a system, review conservation in action, and recognize outside forces on the system.

6. What Are Simple Machines? - Definition, Types & Examples
Simple machines are mechanical devices that are composed of very few or no moving parts. Learn about the definition, types, and examples of simple machines, and explore how they change forces and do work.

7. Conservative Forces: Examples & Effects
Energy is conserved when the forces acting on an object are only conservative forces. Learn about conservative force and its effects on the conservation of energy, and see examples of conservative forces such as force due to gravity and elastic spring force.
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