When an object falls, it gains energy.  From where does this energy come?
144441
It doesn't gain energy, but rather it gains velocity as gravity pulls down on it.  As it falls, the air below it pushes back against the gravity (called resistance), and the faster the object falls, the more air pressure pushes upward. This continues until their is a balance in force between the force of gravity and the force of resistance, at which time there is no increase in either pull on the object, and it remains traveling at that constant velocity until impact.  This concept is known as terminal velocity.
980630
Gravity is a field force created by the presence of mass in space-time. Consequently, two masses separated by some distance, r, will always have the potential to do work in the process of getting closer together. That is, the same amount of energy is required to separate the masses as is released by bringing them closer together. \n\nSo, you can get energy from the system as long as there is a distance between the two masses. However, in obtaining that "free energy," you've brought the masses closer together. If you want to restore the system to its original state, you'll have to supply the same amount of energy you've just extracted. This leaves you zero net energy gain.\n\nImagine a big lake at the edge of a cliff, and imagine that there is a waterfall over the cliff at one place. Now imagine that we put a paddle wheel at its base to catch the falling water. This will cause the wheel to spin, and we can hook this spinning wheel up to a generator to get free power. Sounds great, right?\n\nIt is...until the lake is drained. Once the lake is gone, there's no water to supply our wheel and we can't get anymore power from the system. What you're suggesting is that we should divert some of the power we've extracted from the system to pump water back up into the lake so that it can fall again, turn our paddle, and give us an infinite supply of energy.\n\nThe problem is, the energy required for us to put the water back is actually greater than the energy that we've gained in the first place. So in reality, we're not gaining anything but are instead constantly losing energy.\n\nThe same goes for buoyancy. In fact, buoyancy is a manifestation of gravity; the buoyant force on a mass in a liquid is equal to the weight of the fluid it has displaced. Again, energy is given off by letting a buoyant object rise, but the same amount is then required to bring it back to where it started. The whole cycle does not produce work (in fact, it requires we put more energy in than we get out).
895329
When you hold a ball up in the air, it develops potential energy because gravity wants to pull it down.  As the ball is dropping, that potential energy became kinetic energy, but loses some energy because of friction with the air.  At impact more energy is lost to the ground via thermodynamics (heat loss) and deflection (strain energy transfer).  The ball bounces back up with the remaining energy.  Something like that, better to ask a physics professor in high school or college :)
211921
Potential energy is the energy by virtue of its position.\nAny object which is far away from the center ofpossessingf nothing prevents it will move towards the center of earth. A spring wound fully  or partially. If left alone and it will rewind to its normal position.A  vessel containing gas under high pressure.If there is a vent the pressure will drop to normal.A string under tension. All thesrelievedamples of potential energy. These energies will be releived from the object when  there is proper way. \n\nKinetic energy is the energy by virtue of its motion. Any object moving in other words having velocity is possesing kinetic energy.If the velocity is reduced by some external agency the latter gets energy and viceversa.
310103
Kinetic Energy:\n\nKinetic energy (SI unit: the joule) is energy that a body possesses as a result of its motion. It is formally defined as the work needed to accelerate a body from rest to its current velocity. Having gained this energy during its acceleration, the body maintains this kinetic energy unless its speed changes. Negative work of the same magnitude would be required to return the body to a state of rest from that speed.\n\nIn simple cases, this work (and thus the kinetic enrgy) is equal to:\n\n    Ek =.5(M*(V^2))\nwhere m is the object's mass and v is the object's velocity.
285189
It has been a very long time since I studied all of this in undergrad, but I believe that after impact, some of the kinetic energy is lost/tranformed due to heat or friction.
376365
Energy can not be created or destroyed, it just changes into a different form.  Usually sound waves mechanically vibrate objects, sometimes transferring the energy into kinetic energy, sometimes it is reflected or absorbed and ultimately results in heat, which is a form of mechanical vibration.
539146
A pendulum demonstrates the transfer of potential energy to kenitic energy.\n\nA light bulb demonstrates the transfer of electrical energy to light and heat.
861406
(1000kg is not a ton, it is called a tonne or metric ton)\n\nThe object of 1000kg will have a force of acceleration on it of about 9.8m/s² during its fall of 5m.\n\nTo find the kinetic energy Ek that it will have at the end of its fall you just need to find its gravitational potential energy at the beginning of the fall.  By the end of the fall all the gravitational potential energy will have turned into kinetic energy.\n\nUg=(m)(g)(h)\n\nUg is grav. potential energy, m is mass, g is acceleration due to gravity, h is height\n\nUg=(1000)(9.8)(5)\nUg=49,000 Joules\n\nSo our Ek is also 49,000 Joules.\n\nThe object will land on the earth with 49,000 Joules of kinetic energy.\n\nNear the earth's surface, the object will have a force towards the earth of \nf=ma\nf=(1000kg)(9.8m/s²)\nf=98,000N\n\nAt the time of impact the composition of the earth will determine how much force the 1 tonne mass imparts on the earth.  If it lands somewhere soft where it can dig in far its kinetic energy will be eaten more slowly because it is pushing on the earth with a smaller force, if it lands somewhere very hard then the Ek will be eaten up very quickly as it will decelerate very quickly by imparting a large force on the earth.
91362
It's tranferred to heat/friction from the impact
159069
released from muscle stores as a form of energy
67988
The first answer is correct.  Energy.  Energy is defined as force applied through a distance.  This specific type of energy is known as kinetic energy (energy of motion).  Energy is measured in joules, or J.  E = F x D, so if you applied 50 Newtons and the object moved 1 metre, you would have expended 50 joules.
313762
youre holding a stone on a top of a hill (potential energy here) ---> you drop the stone off the hill (here kinetic energy) ---> the stone is on the ground (here again potential energy)
735972
Conservation of energy and momentum basically means that energy is never created or destroyed, and same with momentum. It has to come with somewhere. If energy or momentum leaves one system, it must enter another system. If energy appears in a system, it had to have come from one. Momentum is never really gained or lost, and same with energy -- it is simply transfered from one body to another. An elastic collision is one in which no kinetic energy is lost, all of it is transfered directly from one system to another.. In an inelastic collision, some of the energy is transfered to a third system (via sound waves, heat energy, or other such energy loss). In this case of an inelastic collision, the total kinetic energy of the two bodies before, is not the same as it is afterwards. The difference in these values would be the energy "lost" from these systems that was tranfered elsewhere.
704412
There are only two ways of energy transfer; one as result of temperature difference  and other where temperature difference is not involved. In the later we may be able to visualize it as work done by some force or we may not be able to do so. But with our pre-decided conception of energy we find that energy of one object gets reduced and the other gets increased then we say that the object/system whose energy is reduced has done work upon the object which has gained energy. The concept of energy is related to work on one hand and force on the other.
43785
it produces a lot of energy
666315
Kinetic energy Ek\n\nlet's consider that an object with a mass m moves on a distance d = x1 - x2, with an acceleration a and its velocity changes from v1 to v1, under the action of a force F\n\naccording to Galileo's law:\nv2^2 - v1^2 = 2.a.d\n\nbut according to Newton's second law:\nF = m.a\n\n-> a = F/m \n-> v2^2 - v1^2 = 2.F.d/m\n-> m.v2^2 - m.v1^2 = 2.F.d\n-> m.v2^2/2 - m.v1^2/2 = F.d\n\nbut W = F.d = the work done while the force F moves the object on the distance d, it caracterizes a process\n\nBut energy is the capacity of an object of doing work, it caracterizes a state\n\nthe kinetic energy is due to the velocity of the object:\n\ndeltaEk = E2 - E1 = W = F.d \n-> E2 = m.v2^2/2\n-> E1 = m.v1^2/2\n\nPotential energy Ep\n\nLet's consider an object with a mass m is falling from a height h1 to h2. \n\nThe work done by gravity is:\n\nW = G.(h1-h2) = m.g.(h1-h2) = m.g.h1 - m.g.h2\n\nThe potential energy is depending on the position of the the object as compared to the Earth and its equal with the work done by gravity taken with opposite sign.\n\ndelta Ep = Ep2 - Ep1 = - W\n\n-> Ep2 = m.g.h2\n-> Ep1 = m.g.h1