What is the Potential Energy? Potential energy is the potential energy held by a body as a result of its location relative to other bodies, stresses on it, its electrical charge, or any number of factors. The unit for the potential energy in the International System of Units(SI) is the kilojoule, which also has the symbol K.
One could say that the potential energy is the amount of heat that a particular body can hold or can produce under typical conditions, without depleting its electrical charge. The SI units for potential energy are calories per second squared, where one completes the equation: Cp / (kW). This means that the hotter an object is, the more calories per second it can potentially hold.
One way to visualize the potential energy is to imagine a force field. Let’s assume a sphere sitting in a gravity well. The shape of the sphere will depend on its location in the gravity well, its orientation with respect to the axis of rotation, and its position along the x-axis. A possible solution to the equation for the surface of the sphere would be a continuous gradient, where the surface would have a definite value for the pressure that would exist due to its orientation with respect to the x-axis.
If the sphere were elastic, there would be a potential energy gradient corresponding to the variation of the horizontal momentum of the object as it moved through the well. In this case, the direction of the potential energy gradient would change as the magnitude of the object changed. In general terms, a force field is a map from zero to one, where the x-axis points towards the origin. Any change in the gravitational potential energy corresponds to a corresponding change in the potential energy gradient.
The relationship between the gravitational potential energy and the potential energy of an object can be mathematically expressed as a time integral over a closed interval. This integral is called the Doppler effect, after Hans Wollenberg who first formulated a mathematical formulation of it. To derive the expression, the impulse of an object in motion must be plotted against the time interval is that it takes to reach a point P. If the tangent to the tangent plane formed by the force equation, then the impulse would be the change in momentum of the object as it travels through the interval t.
The external force may be a pull or a push. If the external force acts parallel to the surface of the sphere then the tangent plane is curved, so the potential energy increases as the tangent plane continues to curve. Conversely, if the external force acts at an angle to the surface, then the potential energy decreases. These two types of forces give rise to different forms of kinetic energy.
Kinetic energy may be derived from the change in position relative to the center of mass of an object. This can be done by taking the product of the kinetic energy and the electric charge of the object. If the derivative of the electric charge with time is positive then there are a zero and only one potential energy component for the object. Therefore the sum of all these components is always equal to zero.
A similar formula to determine gravitational potential energies exists. This is a more exact way to calculate it, but is more difficult to learn. It involves very complicated integration formulas and many unknown variables. This is why no one can confidently state that one form of gravitational potential energy is necessarily better than other. If someone were to apply such a formula for determining gravitational potential energies, then people might be able to say that one form is superior to all others.
There are many sources of potential energy. Many forms can be found using scientific principles like Faraday Laws, Conservation of Energy, and law of conservation of mass. Magnets do not produce such potential energy as they pull on the object they work with. The amount of such force needed to move an object depends on its mass, size, location, orientation, acceleration, angular momentum, spin, and many other factors. All of these are important in determining how much work is done.