General Question

hbower55561's avatar

What energy is used in a pen?

Asked by hbower55561 (1points) February 26th, 2011

what energy is used in a regular pen (not the one with the click thing or what ever)?

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5 Answers

Paradox1's avatar

The power of pressure transmuted from your hand to a piece of paper.

Soubresaut's avatar

Gravity, I think is what you’re looking for. There’s no internal sort of energy, it’s utilizing outer forces.
Here’s a better explanation of what is going on if you’re interested.

thorninmud's avatar

I’m looking at a pen sitting on my table right now, and it’s not using any energy. It’s just sitting there. If I pick it up and write with it, I’m converting the chemical/metabolic energy of my muscles into the kinetic energy needed to move the pen from one end of the line to another. Some of that kinetic energy will get converted into thermal energy by the friction of the tip of the pen rubbing against the paper.

koanhead's avatar

Do you mean Embodied Energy? That would depend on the specific make and model of the pen to which you refer. You would probably have to contact the manufacturer to get that information.

mattbrowne's avatar

Actually, it’s not really gravity. Pens rely on the electromagnetic force on the molecular level. The effect is based on capillary action or adhesion and occurs because of inter-molecular attractive forces between the liquid and solid surrounding surfaces, see

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capillary_action

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