The Three Kinds of Kinetic Energy
There are three different types of motions which make up the three kinetic energy types. The first one we already talked about when we talked about the top spinning. This is called rotational energy. The earth has it by rotating about its axis, a top has it by spinning about the axle, and a string with a weight on it has it as you spin it around.
The next type of energy is called translational movement. This is when something is moving in a straight line, like driving your car down the road. It is also when molecules of air are flying around us all the time (even through we can't see or feel them). This is also the kind of energy that the galaxies have as they expand.
The last kind of energy is one that we've all seen, but not really thought about as kinetic energy before. This is vibrational energy through vibrational motion. Think of a spring joining two weights together. You pull on one of the weights far away and then watch them swing back and forth, towards and away from each other. This is also the same kind of motion that atoms when they are joined together to form molecules!
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