| Energy Changes Bars Tool: The Energy Changes Bars Tool plots colored bars that display the radiant energy incident on a material, the energy reflected by the material, and the energy absorbed (which becomes internal thermal energy). Place an energy bars tool by first selecting Material A or Material B, then clicking on the Energy Bars button, and finally clicking at the desired position of the bar graph. You can reposition the energy bars graph. In the energy bars tool's Properties Box, you can set: Refresh time. How often the tool redraws the energy bars. The default value is 0.2 sec. This feature is more important in simulators with a Run mode. Show energy readouts. Controls whether energies are displayed as numbers as well as bars. Default option is to display the readouts. View mode. Determines the size of the Energy Changes Bars display. You have three choices, min mode, normal mode, and max mode. The figure at the bottom of this help page illustrates the differences between the three modes. Scale mode. You have two choices, auto mode or hand mode. For descriptions of these two modes and what you need to consider in making the choice, see Choosing Scale Mode on the graph tool's help page. Maximum value. Hand mode only: Sets the maximum energy value displayed by the bars. In auto mode, setting this value has no effect. To displays bars for non-visible light, check the box labeled show non-visible light in the background properties.
The figure below illustrates the layout and the three different View modes of the Energy Changes Bars tool for blue material (min mode and normal mode) and magenta material (max mode).
For each body, the Rate of Energy Input to the material by the light from the source is displayed in the top row. The second row displays the Rate of Energy Output to the surrounding environment by the amterial due to reflection. The third row displays the Rate of Energy Changes in System (i.e., in the material) as a result of light absorption and subsequent heating.