How is energy conserved as the brakes slow down the car?

Answer 1

The kinetic energy is converted to heat. In the brakes, friction is generated between the rotors of the wheels and the brakepad. This creates a large amount of resistance to rolling, slowing the car down. The kinetic energy is converted to heat, because when two objects rub together, they heat up. Try this with your hands, and you will find that rubbing your hands together fast and hard will heat them up. This is why in NASCAR races, you can sometimes see a rotor in a wheel on a car glowing red, because that much heat is generated as the brakes slow the car down.

Answer 2

Since kinetic energy is dependent on the square of the velocity of a mass, if the velocity goes to zero, so does the kinetic energy. Of course something has to be done in order for the velocity to go to zero; Newtons 1st law of motion requires that an object that is in motion will not change its velocity unless a force acts upon it. Any force acting over a distance is work - so it requires some kind of work to reduce the velocity to zero. Generally what you get is K.E. converted to work which is converted to heat.

Answer 3

It is lost in other forms of energy, such as heat.

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Answer #2:

It would be transferred to whatever stopped the moving object,

either as kinetic energy, or as potential energy, or as heat, or as

some combination of them.

Answer 4

Assuming you are referring to the Newtonian "conservation of energy" axiom where

"energy is neither created or destroyed, only changed in form"

When brakes are used to slow a car the friction of the brake material rubbing against the metal disk dissipate the energy of the moving car in the form of heat.

Answer 5

Car with conventional internal-combustion engine:

The kinetic energy is converted to heat in the brakes,

and then dissipated to the surrounding air.

Hybrid or electric car:

Some of the kinetic energy is converted to electrical energy,

and stored back in the battery. The rest is lost as heat

during the conversion process, and dissipated to the

surrounding air.

Answer 6

When the brakes slow down a car, they convert the kinetic energy of the moving car into thermal energy through friction. This conversion of energy from kinetic to thermal leads to a decrease in the car's speed, resulting in a loss of kinetic energy but overall conserving the total energy in the system.