Potential Energy - Elastic Potential Energy

Elastic Potential Energy

Elastic potential energy is the potential energy of an elastic object (for example a bow or a catapult) that is deformed under tension or compression (or stressed in formal terminology). It arises as a consequence of a force that tries to restore the object to its original shape, which is most often the electromagnetic force between the atoms and molecules that constitute the object. If the stretch is released, the energy is transformed into kinetic energy.

Read more about this topic:  Potential Energy

Famous quotes containing the words elastic, potential and/or energy:

    To him whose elastic and vigorous thought keeps pace with the sun, the day is a perpetual morning. It matters not what the clocks say or the attitudes and labors of men. Morning is when I am awake and there is a dawn in me.
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)

    The real community of man ... is the community of those who seek the truth, of the potential knowers.
    Allan Bloom (1930–1992)

    Perhaps catastrophe is the natural human environment, and even though we spend a good deal of energy trying to get away from it, we are programmed for survival amid catastrophe.
    Germaine Greer (b. 1939)