Chemical Energy

[interele]

Can someone help me get my head around this. I can get a mental picture of how magnetism, electricity etc work. I have been reading about how muscles work and I understand the mechanics and I know the energy comes from ATP but I can't get a mental picture of how breaking off a phosphate molecule provides the energy for it to work. Has anyone got a mental picture / analogy how this works

Ta
Mal

[Buenchico]

Try this:

[Peter Pedant]

I am not surprised
try this
https://www.nature.com/scitable/topicpage/the-sliding-filament-theory-of-muscle-contraction-14567666/

you have seen the myofibrils being short in contracted muscle and longer in relaxed. - think of a golf club - one of the proteins, myosin. It breaks, and makes a tick or V shape at the end. Movement geddit. and to do this, it requires ATP

chemical energy transduced to movement - ter daaah

basic idea hasnt changed muchf or 50y. they were doing wibbly wobbly golf clubs when I was a student and I am 70

[interele]

Thank you for your suggestions but I understand the chemistry and how muscles work but I can't get my head around how ATP actually powers the muscle. For example - with magnetism you can imagine invisible elastic bands or with an electric motor , the coils create a magnetic field that causes the rotor to be attracted to the permanent magnets. What I can't get is what happens when ATP loses a phospate and becomes ADP - how does this actually power the muscle ( or any cell for that matter ) I know this is a really terribly constructed question ... sorry