What's the difference between Thermal and Mechanical energy?

Answer 1

Energy is energy, however it can be stored in different forms.

Thermal energy, as you can guess, is just energy in the form of heat, which is simply molecules (or atoms of a simple substance) vibrating, rotating, translating, and just plain bumping around randomly in the lump of material they are a part of. The lump can be at rest. and have thermal energy.

Mechanical energy is the energy stored by a lump of material that's moving. Falling water, a skier going down a hill, planets orbiting the sun, all have mechanical energy. They have their own thermal energy as well, but we usually distinguish between the energy related to the overall movement of a body, and the energy related to the heat stored in them.

Its like the difference between salary and investment income, both are in dollars, just different categories for accounting.

Answer 2

One way to think of this is the mechanical energy is the energy in the mechanical parts. The gears, motors, or bodies in motion. The thermal energy is released as a result of the work done by the mechanical parts. This energy of heat is released into the surround atmosphere. The law of Conservation of Energy states that the total energy of a system is conserved. Therefore if we have an initial system say a car's engine. The energy in that system will be the same in the beginning as it is in the end. The say the motor in the car moves. This kinetic motion causes thermal energy. The energy is then transferred from mechanical to to thermal. This is what heats up the engine. The total energy though remains the same. There may be less kinetic energy on the gears, but more thermal energy in the surrounding particles.

Answer 3

Thermal energy is potential energy stored in the form of heat. The mechanical energy is a kinetic energy in the form of motion. For us the mechanical energy is very useful to us since it is very close to be used direct like moving a car, generating electricity etc. Thermal energy like energy in hot water or stream is easy to convert to mechanical energy in the form a turbine etc. However current conversion efficiencies are very low.

Answer 4

thermal energy is the heat energy while mechanical energy is th energy produced by machines

Answer 5

What's Mechanical Energy

Answer 6

Let us know when you find out