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This model represents the experiment of **James Prescott Joule**. The **Joule Apparatus** demonstrates the relationship between different forms of energy. It consists of a **weight** on a **string**, which is wound around a **winding drum**, a **paddle wheel** inside an **insulated container of water** and a **thermometer**.
On the beginning the weight has the **potential energy**. When the weight is released, it starts a free falling. During this falling the **potential energy is transformed to kinetic energy** of the weight and the paddle wheel’s energy of rotation. The rotating paddles inside the water are causing its temperature to rise. We can measure it with a thermometer.
J. P. Joule concluded the **mechanical energy can be converted into heat energy**. However, it was the very precision of his measurements what caused some scientists to balk at accepting Joule’s findings. He claimed to be able to measure temperatures to a scale within **1/200 of a degree Fahrenheit**, which would have been astonishing for a 19th century scientist.
