Basically the concept of energy is confusing because in all other cases like velocity or mass I can see and clearly imagine whatever changes happen but when somebody says energy got transferred from one body to another what do I imagine is being transferred?
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2$\begingroup$ Check physics.stackexchange.com/q/3014 $\endgroup$– QuantumBrickCommented Nov 10, 2015 at 13:37
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$\begingroup$ Related question by OP: physics.stackexchange.com/q/217495/2451 $\endgroup$– Qmechanic ♦Commented Nov 10, 2015 at 17:33
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$\begingroup$ In English, the word "I" is capitalized. $\endgroup$– DanielSankCommented Nov 10, 2015 at 18:21
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1 Answer
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It is maybe because this quantity is dependent on the square of the velocity and on the mass of the body, meaning, two other quantites. Best way to get some feel for energy is to imagine, and maybe, perform, experiments with collision of bodys with different masses and velocities. So, for example, let the body that you are launching be of constant mass and speed, and collide it with resting bodies of different masses. You will obseve that, although same energy is transfered, speed of the body that gets it is not the same, so bigger mass can gain same amount of energy with less speed. More mathematical observation is that this speed dependence is quadratic in speed, which is cool. Another way of launching bodies with same energy is to use spring as a catapult. So what do you imagine is being transfered is something mass and speed dependent and this is a bit harder then to imagine speed, but let me asure you that speed is not transfered anyways, energy is.