Potential Energy Calculator

Our potential energy calculator allows you to calculate the mass, acceleration, height and gravitational potential energy of an object.

What is Potential Energy?

According to physics, the potential energy is the amount of energy stored in an object due to its state or position.

Did you know?

“The amount of energy that is required to move an object against the gravitational energy is called gravitational potential energy.”

The more the object is carried upward, the higher the gravitational potential energy is and vice versa.

For example:

The real life examples of potential energy includes:

• A ripe fruit before it falls on the ground.
• A bullet fired from a gun after it achieves the maximum height.
• A box on the table until it falls.

Gravitational Potential Energy Formula:

You can use the following equation to determine the potential energy of the object:

P. E = m * g * h

g = acceleration due to gravity
h = height of the object from reference zero
m = mass of the object

Gravitational Acceleration:

When an object falls freely, its acceleration is actually due to gravity and is called gravitational acceleration and its value is 9.8 m /s²

Pictorial Presentation of Potential Energy:

In the picture above, a car is ascending a cliff. At the start, this car has a maximum amount of kinetic energy and the potential energy is zero. When the car ascends causing a change in its height, the potential energy changes from zero to the respected value corresponding to the position of the car.

At the top of the cliff, the car has the maximum gravitational potential energy and kinetic energy becomes zero. At this moment, the car becomes at rest for a fraction of seconds before it starts descending towards the ground.

When the car goes in downward direction, the potential energy of the car converts into the relative kinetic energy due to which the car comes down. When the car reaches the ground, its kinetic energy becomes maximum again while the potential energy again becomes zero.

How to Calculate Potential Energy?

To better understand the concept of potential energy, let us discuss the following examples:

Example # 01:

Find the potential energy of an object falling freely due to gravity from a height of h = 10 m and having a mass of 96.2 kg.

Solution:

As we know that the potential energy equation is given as:

P. E = m * g * h

By putting the values in the above formula, we get;

P.E = 96.2 * 9.8 * 10

P.E = 9427.6 J

Example # 02:

Suppose an object has an acceleration of 4.2 m/s2 and possesses the potential energy of 63 joules. The mass of the object is 25 kg. What is the corresponding height of the object?

Solution:

The potential energy formula is given as:

P. E = m * g * h

h = P.E / m * g

By putting the values we get;

h = 63 / 25 *4.2

h= 0.6 m

So, the height of the object is 0.6 m.

You can also verify the result by putting the values in gravitational potential energy calculator.

Example # 03:

Calculate the mass of the object in free fall motion along with the following parameters:
Height of the object = 4.1 m
Potential energy of the object = 7.8 J

Solution:

We know that the acceleration of a freely falling object is 9.8 m/s2 (gravitational acceleration).
The equation for potential energy is as follows:

m = P.E / g * h

By putting the values, we get;

m = 7.8 / 4.1 * 9.8

m = 0.194kg

How Potential Energy Calculator Works?

Whenever you are looking to find the potential energy of any system, you can assign the values to our free gravitational potential energy calculator to determine absolute results. Let’s see what you need to do!

Input:

You Have to select either:
• Mass
• Gravity
• Height
• Potential energy

After selecting any one of the above parameters;

• input the values given against that parameter.
• Click ‘calculate’.

Output:

• Mass of the object
• Gravity
• Height of the object
• Potential energy of the object
• Detailed calculation of the problem

References:

From the source of wikipedia: Work and potential energy, Derivable from a potential, Potential energy for a linear spring, Negative gravitational energy.

From the source of Khan Academy: conservation of energy, perpetual motion.