A baseball pitching machine uses mechanical energy to turn its gears. The mechanical energy of the gears is converted to kinetic energy when the gears pitch a baseball into the air. The amount of mechanical energy in the gears is greater than the kinetic energy of the flying baseball.

What happened to the mechanical energy that was not converted to kinetic energy?


Some energy from the ball was transferred into the ground.


Some energy was released as heat.


Some energy was converted back to mechanical energy


Some energy was destroyed during the energy conversion.