Potential energy is stored energy within a physical system, such as gravity, elasticity, chemistry, electricity, and thermal energy. It can be explained as one of two forms of energy, along with kinetic energy. Examples include elastic potential energy, gravitational energy, chemical potential energy, electric potential energy, and nuclear potential energy.
Potential energy is a concept that can be more simply understood as “stored energy”. It is energy stored within a physical system, usually as a result of an object’s location. Examples of potential energy include those having to do with gravity, elasticity, chemistry, electricity, and thermal energy.
One way to explain energy is that it always falls in one of two forms: potential and kinetic. Some scientists dispute this explanation as oversimplified or artificial, but it is useful for explaining some general principles. Kinetic energy is that related to movement. Potential energy is that stored inside a stationary object. Understanding this may explain how energy continues to exist even when its effects cannot be seen.
One of the easiest examples of potential energy to understand is elastic potential energy. This can be illustrated by pulling back on a bow. Since the shape of the bowstring is temporarily deformed, when released it will attempt to return to its original shape, thus producing the energy that propels the arrow. Until the bow is released, this energy exists as elastic potential energy.
Another of the common examples of potential energy is gravitational energy. A falling object will accelerate due to kinetic energy. When the object hits the ground, this same amount of energy will be released as heat and sound in the collision. However, before the object falls, this amount of energy is stored as potential energy.
The amount of gravitational energy will depend on both the mass of the object and the height at which it is located. If you move a book from one shelf to a higher one, the book’s potential energy will increase. It may seem confusing that the same book can increase its potential energy without any physical change. However, the increase in potential energy will come from and be equal to the energy you expend to lift the book higher.
Chemical potential energy exists in how atoms or molecules are formed. This energy is then released and transformed when the substance is involved in a chemical reaction. For example, when a fuel is burned, its chemical potential energy is converted into heat.
Electric potential energy comes in many forms. An object with electrical charge at rest has potential energy that relates to other nearby objects that are also electrically charged. A variation of this is for loaded objects that are not at rest; in this situation there is magnetic potential energy. Of all the examples of potential energy, perhaps the most spectacular is through electrically charged particles within an atomic nucleus, which contain nuclear potential energy.
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