Potential Energy

a) Water stored in a reservoir is capable of rotating turbines, which are kept at a lower level i.e, water stored in a reservoir possesses energy.

b) If you hit a nail hard with a hammer the nail gets fixed whereas if the hammer is just placed on the nail, the nail hardly moves. The hammer, which is raised, possesses energy by virtue of it's position.

c) A toy car driven by a winding key: When we turn the key the spring gets wound and if we leave the toy car on the floor it starts moving due to the unwinding of the spring. This means that the wound spring possesses energy, which in turn moves the toy car. Here the gain in energy is due to its position or condition.

A toy car driven by a winding key

Stretched string gains potential energy

Potential energy of an object can be defined as the energy possessed by the object by virtue of its position or condition.

Sub Topics

Expression for potential energy
Numericals

Expression for potential energy

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Consider an object of mass 'm', raised through a height 'h' above the earth's surface. The work done against gravity gets stored in the object as it's potential energy (gravitational potential energy).

Therefore, potential energy = work done in raising the object through a height 'h'.