So I was wondering about if you hold up a magnet using a retort stand(or anything actually) and let a paper clip or something get attracted. But what is the energy being converted into the KE and GPE for the paper clip to move up? I asked my teacher but he said answering me will make me confused but I’m still too curious.
In: Physics
Quite simply potential energies are created by a force ‘doing work”. So this is any force acting over a distance.
Gravitational is very common and easy to demonstrate. Gravity exerts its influence as the object falls down, and also must be “faught” when you lift objects up.
So magnets exert a force, and are applied as objects are brought closer or further. So they can have a magnetic potential energy just like gravitational.
Springs can also work this way… So there is a spring potential energy (usually called elastic potential energy).
Following the same pattern we also have electrical potential energy (which at the small scale is chemical potential energy) and nuclear potential energy.
So it can lead you down a rabbit hole if you focus on all the different types. But the key tying them all together is they are a force exerted over a distance.
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