The ability to do work (motion) and cause change is called what?

Study for the 2026 End of Year Science Vocabulary Competition. Enhance your knowledge with flashcards and multiple choice questions, complete with hints and explanations. Get ready for your exam!

Multiple Choice

The ability to do work (motion) and cause change is called what?

Explanation:
Energy is the ability to do work and to cause change in a system. It comes in different forms, like kinetic energy from motion and potential energy from position, and work is what happens when a force moves something, transferring energy in the process. This idea fits the phrase “ability to do work (motion) and cause change” because energy is what enables objects to move or change state. Temperature, by contrast, is a measure of how hot something is based on the average kinetic energy of its particles, but it isn’t itself the capacity to do work. Melting and evaporation are specific processes that require energy to change the state of a substance, not the general concept of energy itself.

Energy is the ability to do work and to cause change in a system. It comes in different forms, like kinetic energy from motion and potential energy from position, and work is what happens when a force moves something, transferring energy in the process. This idea fits the phrase “ability to do work (motion) and cause change” because energy is what enables objects to move or change state. Temperature, by contrast, is a measure of how hot something is based on the average kinetic energy of its particles, but it isn’t itself the capacity to do work. Melting and evaporation are specific processes that require energy to change the state of a substance, not the general concept of energy itself.

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