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What makes kinetic sculptures move?
How artists create energy
You might remember from high school science a thing or two about Kinetic Energy, KE for short. You might have been fascinated by it conceptually, but you also might never really seen it in action in the context of art.
When we refer to kinetic energy, we are referring to an object in motion.
An object with KE has movement.
It is either falling, getting pulled by gravity, or rolling down a slope. It could be powered by wind to move through air. It could have a motor mechanism to propel it forward, such as a car or an airplane.
All objects with KE have mass, or weight.
Thus, to measure KE we use the two measurable units, mass(m), and velocity(v), ie, the speed of the object’s movement.
The unit for mass is kilograms(kg), and for velocity meters/seconds(m/s). The result, the measurement for KE, is rendered in joules(J).
The formula used to measure KE is:
Thus, an object that has mass(m), or weight, and has velocity(v), or is moving, has KE.
