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Potential energy is the energy by virtue of an object's position relative to other objects. [5] Potential energy is often associated with restoring forces such as a spring or the force of gravity. The action of stretching a spring or lifting a mass is performed by an external force that works against the force field of the potential.
For two pairwise interacting point particles, the gravitational potential energy is the work that an outside agent must do in order to quasi-statically bring the masses together (which is therefore, exactly opposite the work done by the gravitational field on the masses): = = where is the displacement vector of the mass, is gravitational force acting on it and denotes scalar product.
The energy function in the action principles is not the total energy (conserved in an isolated system), but the Lagrangian, the difference between kinetic and potential energy. The kinetic energy combines the energy of motion for all the objects in the system; the potential energy depends upon the instantaneous position of the objects and ...
Chemical energy is the kind of potential energy "stored" in chemical bonds and is studied in chemistry. [24] Nuclear energy is energy stored in interactions between the particles in the atomic nucleus and is studied in nuclear physics. [25] Electromagnetic energy is in the form of electric charges, magnetic fields, and photons.
The negative-energy particle then crosses the event horizon into the black hole, with the law of conservation of energy requiring that an equal amount of positive energy should escape. In the Penrose process , a body divides in two, with one half gaining negative energy and falling in, while the other half gains an equal amount of positive ...
A thermodynamic potential (or more accurately, a thermodynamic potential energy) [1] [2] is a scalar quantity used to represent the thermodynamic state of a system. Just as in mechanics , where potential energy is defined as capacity to do work, similarly different potentials have different meanings.
The gravitational potential (V) at a location is the gravitational potential energy (U) at that location per unit mass: =, where m is the mass of the object. Potential energy is equal (in magnitude, but negative) to the work done by the gravitational field moving a body to its given position in space from infinity.
The minimum total potential energy principle is a fundamental concept used in physics and engineering.It dictates that at low temperatures a structure or body shall deform or displace to a position that (locally) minimizes the total potential energy, with the lost potential energy being converted into kinetic energy (specifically heat).