Citizen Science No. 16 by Jamie Zvirzdin

Energy Demystified: Potential Energy’s Untapped Value

This month, as part of our year-long series on the different kinds of real, measurable energies in our universe, we shall cover a concept that, while foundational in physics, resonates with life itself: potential energy. It may sound technical at first, but I hope to show how potential energy, and gravitational potential energy in particular, embodies the idea that even when things seem stagnant and still, there’s a world of possibility waiting to be unleashed.

Potential energy is the energy stored in an object because of its position, condition or state. It’s the energy of anticipation, the calm before the storm, the coil in the spring, the water held back by the dam, the double-A battery fresh from the factory, the caterpillar before the butterfly, that butterfly and all his friends and relatives in your stomach right before the roller coaster’s plunge. It’s the marvelous moment before a significant change that will release other forms of “actual” energy: kinetic energy, heat energy, electromagnetic energy and more.