Hello, Jack here. I’m going to tell you about the Sun’s energy. The Sun is very hot and bright and provides almost all the energy needed for life on Earth.
Energy takes on many forms and as long as you have the right process you can transfer one kind of energy into many other kinds. In fact, energy is a bit like money….just having it and never passing it on, isn't much use!
Energy has to be transferred to make things happen. The Sun has a lot of energy and it passes some of this on to the Earth, but it ends up in lots of different pockets, as different forms of energy.
Here are some examples ot the convection, conduction and radiation of energy.
Energy can never be created or lost…
it is just transferred from one form to another.
The centre of the Sun is extremely hot, 15,000,000 oC. Hot objects can heat up their surroundings (transfer energy) by conduction, convection and radiation. These are the same ways in which energy is carried from the centre of the Sun (the core) through the radiative zone, and up to the Sun’s surface through the convection zone .
Sometimes, energy ends up in a form which is not very useful.
Think about an electric light bulb. The electrical energy provides light (very useful), but a lot of energy is also 'wasted' as heat.
To find out about the different kinds of energy here on Earth, go to the Earth and Beyond section.