<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Potential energy is the energy stored in a body or a system by virtue of its position in a field of force or by its configuration. Potential energy is also called mutual energy or energy of configuration. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is measured by the amount of work that a body or system can do in passing from its present position or configuration to some standard position or configuration, called zero position or zero configuration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Examples of potential energy due to position:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n (i) A body lying on the roof of a building has some potential energy. When allowed to fall down, it can do work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n (ii) The potential energy of water stored to great heights in dams is used to run turbines for generating hydroelectricity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Examples of potential energy due to configuration:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n (i) In a toy car, the wound spring has potential energy. As the spring is released, its potential energy changes into kinetic energy which moves the toy car.<\/p>\n\n\n\n (ii) Astretched bow possesses potential energy. As soon as it is released, it shoots the arrow in the forward direction with a large velocity. The potential energy of the stretched bow gets converted into the kinetic energy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n (iii) <\/strong>Due to the potential energy of the compressed spring in a loaded gun, the bullet is fired with a large velocity on firing the gun.<\/p>\n\n\n Three common types of potential energies are as follows:<\/p>\n\n\n\n (i) Gravitational potential energy<\/strong>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n It is the potential energy associated with the state of separation of two bodies, which attract one another through the gravitational force.<\/p>\n\n\n\n (ii) Elastic potential energy<\/strong>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n It is the potential energy associated with the state of compression or extension of an elastic (spring like) object.<\/p>\n\n\n\n (iii) Electrostatic potential energy:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The energy due to the interaction between two electric charges is electrostatic potential energy.<\/p>\n\n\n Gravitational potential energy. The gravitational potential energy of a body is the energy possessed by the body by virtue of its position above the surface of the earth.<\/p>\n\n\n Consider a body of mass m lying on the surface of the earth, as shown in Fig. 6.15. Let ‘g’ be the acceleration due to gravity at this place<\/p>\n\n\n\n For heights much smaller than the radius of the earth (h << RE<\/sub>) the value g can be taken constant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Force needed to lift the body up with zero acceleration,<\/p>\n\n\n\n F = Weight of the body = <\/strong>mg<\/p>\n\n\n\n Work done on the body in raising it through height h,<\/p>\n\n\n\n W = F . h = mg . h<\/p>\n\n\n\n This work done against gravity is stored as the gravitational potential energy (U) of the body.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2234 U = mg h<\/p>\n\n\n\n At the surface of the earth, h= 0<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2234 Gravitational P.E. at the earth’s surface = zero.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Potential energy is the energy stored in a body or a system by virtue of its position in a field of force or by its configuration. Potential energy is also called mutual energy or energy of configuration. It is measured by the amount of work that a body or system can do in passing from … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/successrouter.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/successrouter.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/successrouter.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/successrouter.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/successrouter.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=108"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/successrouter.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":109,"href":"https:\/\/successrouter.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108\/revisions\/109"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/successrouter.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/successrouter.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/successrouter.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Different types of potential energies. <\/h4>\n\n\n
Gravitational Potential Energy<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n
Expression for G.P.E. <\/h4>\n\n\n