Yahoo Answers is shutting down on May 4th, 2021 (Eastern Time) and beginning April 20th, 2021 (Eastern Time) the Yahoo Answers website will be in read-only mode. There will be no changes to other Yahoo properties or services, or your Yahoo account. You can find more information about the Yahoo Answers shutdown and how to download your data on this help page.
Trending News
Law of conservation of energy question?
according to this law energy is never lost nor created.
so if i drop a 100 pound box on the ground the kinetic energy of the ball is transfered to the earth correct? well, why wouldn't the earth move slightly toward or away from the sun depending if its day or night?
4 Answers
- 1 decade ago
True, dropping the ball will gain kinetic energy on it's way towards the earth, but also it will loose potential energy. The sun and earth part of the question doesn't quit make sense only because the earth is always receiving energy from the sun regardless if it is night here, it has to be day 1/2 of the time elsewhere. This logically says, the earth is receiving roughly the same energy throughout a 24 hour period. BUT..in a 365 day round trip, the earth does get slightly closer to the sun....it's not a perfect circle. As with the moon, this affects gravity slightly, and as you know, gravitational potential energy can be either + or - depending.
- Anonymous1 decade ago
The earth does move when you drop something. It just moves in direct proportion to the masses and distances involved.
The earth's total mass is about 6 septillion kg. If you were to drop a 6 kg object from a height of one meter, the earth would move only one zeptometer or one trillionth of a nanometer or about 1/25,000,000 the radius of a single hydrogen atom.
- Anonymous1 decade ago
Just because, it's science. Learn it.
