IntroductionOne Wednesday evening in physics class, my professor declared that “power and energy are not the same thing.” This became an interesting topic for me, not because I disagreed, but because I overused the terms. You may have heard people use the terms "power" and "energy" almost twice, it's only because they don't understand the facts about what these things actually are. Power and Energy – There is a difference. What's the difference? In this article I want to explain that in the world of physics, power and energy go hand in hand, but they are not the same thing. There is a difference, and there is a simple explanation. What is energy? Energy is defined as effort; ability to perform work; the resources needed to produce such energy (Merriam-Webster 1999). The authors (Kilpatrick and Francis, 2010) wrote that “energy is one of the most fundamental and ambitious worldview concepts in physics” (p. 116). These authors also assert that it is not easy to give a precise definition to energy. After long hours of research and reading many definitions of energy. I liked the definition Professor Whitlock gave in class: “energy is the ability to do work and work is the change of energy.” In a simpler term, energy is the ability to change things. We have often used the term energy loosely. For example, you may have heard someone say that eating a big meal gives you energy or that my three-year-old has a lot of energy. Did you know that a bouncing ball, a gallon of gasoline, or a burning fire also have energy? Neither did I until I fully understood the concept of energy. Since energy is the ability to change things, it can change the temperature, shape, speed, po...... middle of paper ...... the measure of how long it lasts can maintain energy production. Power is the rate at which energy is converted. Whenever energy changes shape or moves from one place to another, the speed at which it makes these changes is power. Summary What I learned is that energy and power are not the same thing. The Watt is a unit of power equal to one Joule of energy converted every second. Energy is what you supply and power is the rate at which it is supplied.ReferencesDanish Wind Industry Association. Retrieved April 19, 2011 from http://www.windpower.org/en/stat/unitsene.htmKirkpatrick, L. and Francis G. (2010). Physics: A Conceptual View of the World (7th ed.). Energy (pp. 115-134) CA: Brooks/Cole.Merriam-Webster. (1999). Webster's New Exploring Dictionary (pp. 172, 408). Springfield, MA: Federal Street Press.