ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Joule

A joule is like a special kind of energy sticker that shows how much energy something has. Let's say you have a yummy cookie and you want to know how much energy it has. You stick a joule sticker on it, and the sticker will tell you how much oomph the cookie has to make your body go vroom.

One joule is like having one toy car that can roll for a really long time. The more joules something has, the more toy cars it can roll. Kind of like how a big truck has more power to haul heavy things than a tiny car.

Joules are used to measure all sorts of things that have energy, like batteries or light bulbs. And sometimes we use joules to talk about how much work we are doing, like if we have to lift a really heavy box. So if you want to understand energy, just remember to think about those little joule stickers as the answer.