Forces Motion And Energy: Science Terms Explained
Plain-language definitions of every forces motion and energy term your child meets in school, each with kid-friendly explanations, worked examples, and common mistakes to watch for.
Thermal energy
Thermal energy is the total kinetic energy of all the tiny moving particles in a substance, which we sense as how hot or cold something is.
Velocity
Velocity is the speed of an object in a specific direction, such as 10 meters per second north.
Vibration
Vibration is a back-and-forth or up-and-down motion that repeats over and over around a central position, often caused when an object is disturbed and energy moves through it.
Visible light
Visible light is the range of electromagnetic energy that human eyes can detect, made up of different colors from red to violet that together let us see the world.
Wave
A wave is a repeating disturbance that transfers energy from one place to another without moving matter from place to place in the same way.
Wavelength
A wavelength is the distance between two matching points on a wave, such as from one crest (highest point) to the next crest, and it shows how long one full wave is in space.
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