Conservation of energy

The law of conservation of energy is fundamental in the study of science and states that energy can be neither created nor destroyed, but rather changes from one form to another (e.g. chemical to kinetic). However, the applicability of this law to the study of human movement is limited, as it is widely recognised that the conversion of chemical energy to mechanical energy within the muscles is not 100 per cent efficient (i.e. some of the chemical energy is converted to heat). As such, when describing human performance, it is typical to describe only the kinetic energy that results from this conversion, while any heat that is generated is generally overlooked. In this section, the relevance of the conservation of mechanical energy to the study of human movement is introduced and the importance of factors such as strain potential energy, friction and air resistance is discussed.