Question

Taro stated that when someone hits a golf ball with a club, the amount of energy the ball has changes, the amount of energy that the club has changes, and the total energy of the system that includes the ball and the club increases. Which best explains Taro’s error?

Answer 1

The mistake here is that the total energy of the system does not change - generally, the total amount of energy in a system never changes unless the energy enters or leaves the system somehow (for example, if you see the Earth alone as a system, then energy from the sun enters the system and some energy is lost to space in the form of heat).