Mechanics
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Free online mechanics lesson for elementary school, middle school and high school.
Gravity
Potential energy
A ball that is dropped upon some sand creates a crater whose dimensions depend on the ball's energy at the time of impact:
more energy for the ball will result a deeper and wider crater.
We can notice the crater's size depends on two factors:
- The size of the crater increases with height of fall
- The size of the crater increases with the ball's mass
Thus we can conclude that every object owns an energy that depends on its height and it mass.
Such an energy is called " potential energy ".
Potential energy is denoted by PE and can be expressed in Joule.
An object's potential energy increases if its height or its mass increases.
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