Potential Energy

Energy can be transferred from potential to kinetic and between objects.

Potential energy is stored energy--energy ready to go.  A lawn mower filled with gasoline, a car on top of a hill, and students waiting to go home from school are all examples of potential energy. 

Gravitational potential energy is the energy possessed by a body because of its elevation (height) relative to a lower elevation, that is, the energy that could be obtained by letting it fall to a lower elevation.  For example, water at the top of a waterfall or stored behind a dam at a hydroelectric plant has gravitational potential energy.

Kinetic Energy

Energy a body has because it is in motion. It is equal to one half the product of the mass of a body and the square of its velocity. KE=1/2 mv2

Example of Potential and Kinetic Energy Pictures

Notice in the two images upove and below, when the car and the biker are at the bottom going up that is kinetic energy. When they reach the very top of the hill that is potential energy.

Notice in the two pictures upove and below, when the ball is being released it is kinetic energy. On the picture below..the kinetic energy is the ball, about to be thrown, when it is throw and lands on the ground that is the potential energy.