if energy cannot b created from where does a paper clip get energy to hold papers tight?

Question

well if the energy is the potential energy used to bend it at first then the energy should have finished after some time but y then will it hold the paper for so long

Answer 1

The sun shines on plants
The "administative assistance" eats her oats
This gives her the energy to bend the paper clip open enough to slip on the paper.
No further energy input is required to hold the paper tight after the clip is in place, because there is no metal displacement after it's on. Work=force times displacement.

One of the most common misconceptions in physics is that a static force requires a continuous consumption of energy (aka power).

Answer 2

The energy comes from the mechanical energy first needed to pry it apart. It then stores this energy as potential energy to restore it's original form. This potential energy that is trying to restore the form of the paper clip is the energy that's holding the papers tight.

Edit: Technically, it wasn't potential energy that bent the paperclip. It was the kinetic energy that came from the person that bent the paper clip. By seperating the legs of the paper clip, the kinetic energy used for the seperating is converted into potential energy: the energy potential for the clip to revert back to it's original shape.

Now, your question as to why it holds the papers for so long. It is because the potential energy doesn't get "used up". For example, a person pushed a boulder up a mountain hundreds of years ago. While the kinetic energy used to push the boulder up is converted into gravitational potential energy, it'll keep that potential energy so long as it remains on top of that mountain.

By your idea of potential energy getting used up, if a person were to push that boulder off the mountain, it'll never fall down for there is no potential for it to fall. Energy never "finishes." It either gets converted into another type of energy (usually heat), but it never just disappears.

Answer 3

Potential energy.
You bend it, making it want to go back, meaning potential energy. Potential energy is energy created by the circumstance of an object. So because the paper clip wants to straighten, it will hold papers tight.

Answer 4

From your muscles. It was you that bent the paperclip to hold the papers, right? The clip wants to maintain its shape due to the configuration of its atoms. When you bent the clip the atoms got a slight increase in energy as they got pushed sligthly closer. Think of the atoms as balloons. They can be pushed together but they don´t really want to be too close. So they deform and want to regain its original shape. When you free the clip of the papaers it will spring out again releasing the energy you put into it.

Answer 5

it is bcos of the force that pushes the paper clip together to hold the papers