Name: World's Most Asked Questions: What Is Energy?
Uploaded: 2017-01-30T16:50:14.000Z
Duration: 4 min 35 s
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As you probably know by now, we’ve been working with Google and YouTube to answer

ten of the most popular science questions asked on the internet.

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And I gotta hand it to you, because there are few questions that are as confounding

and complex and fascinating and inspiring, as this one the collective consciousness has

I'm Hank Green, and this is the World’s Most Asked Questions.

Energy is everything. It’s everywhere. It’s one of the true constants of the universe,

because as long as there’s been a universe, there’s been energy.

And while it comes in lots of different forms that can seem different to us, they all amount

to the same thing: Energy is the ability to do work.

And work is just the act of displacing something by applying force.

So, say you stomp on a stomp rocket. The force of your foot hitting the pedal is turned into

the force of air leaving the cannon -- sending your rocket sailing.

Or maybe you're enjoying a nice patty melt -- the energy from that food is broken down

for all of the quadrillions of cells that you have to do all of the things that they

have to do -- make copies of your DNA, assemble and repair proteins, transport materials from

one place to another, make muscle cells contract -- you know, all the stuff of being alive.

That rocket sailing, your cells toiling away, your phone or computer being on right now

to watch me -- that’s all work being done.

And the ability to do these things is inherent in everything around you. Even things that

look inert, completely lacking in energy. Like this log.

This log, for example, is chock full of chemical energy because it’s made up of combinations

of carbon and hydrogen and oxygen formed into lignin, which is the stuff that makes up wood.

All of the bonds between all of those atoms, in every molecule of lignin, contain energy.

How do I know? Because if I were to apply enough extra energy, like as heat, to break

those bonds -- it would release that chemical energy as fire.

That chemical energy also the kind of energy you get from that patty melt -- your body

is fueled by the chemical bond energy in sugars, fats, and proteins.

But this log also contains nuclear energy!

Each atom in this wood has a nucleus, made of protons and neutrons, and the energy that

binds them together is one of the most powerful sources of energy in the universe.

If you could split one of the atoms of carbon or hydrogen in this log, and rip those protons

and neutrons apart, it’d release some of that energy. There’s so much nuclear energy

in each atom that, if I could unleash all of it that's in this log? There’d be a giant

smoldering crater where I’m standing and everyone in the town of Missoula, Montana

So, everything that’s made of atoms has nuclear energy locked up in it, but also,

it turns out, that mass and energy are the same thing!

You might have heard of this little equation that a German patent clerk came up with about

And there are SO MANY OTHER KINDS of energy that I’d love to get into if we had the

.. but even though they may seem different, they can all be used to do work, whether it’s

driving a turbine, or moving a engine piston, or allowing the screen on your tablet to glow.

Or, if it’s that most mysterious of energies, dark energy, causing the universe to expand

Once the work is done, the energy isn’t done.

It can never be destroyed, and in the same way, it can never be created.

It can only be transferred from one source to another -- like, how the energy in the

plants and animals that were in the patty melt were transferred into you -- or it can

be transferred from one form into another -- like the chemical energy in the wood being

You could think of the universe as a constant flow of energy, and we are just little pit

Everything your body is doing right now -- whether it’s your lungs absorbing oxygen, your heart

pumping blood, your brain cells firing as you watch me and learn things -- all those

things are using recycled energy that’s been around since the origin of the universe.

And by simply being alive, you’re releasing that energy back into the environment around

you, to be used by other things in other ways.

So Internet, to answer your question: Energy is everything.

And for those of you who answered our questions on our SciShow survey, where you feel like

you get your energy may be keeping you up at night. Survey takers who have a hard time

falling asleep nearly every night get their energy from knowledge first, second from purpose.

Of all the fascinating questions in the world, what question do you want to see answered

most? Let us know on Facebook or Twitter or down in the comments down below and we will

aim to answer those questions in a new video at the end of the month.