What is the difference between Kinetic Energy and Potential Energy?

Potential energy is not related to the object's environment, while kinetic energy is relative to the other moving or fixed objects in the environment. If an item is moving in an environment where other objects are moving too, the object's acceleration will not be apparent at all.

The word kinetic energy can also be transferred from one moving object to another when a collision or contact occurs. This scenario is not the case at a potential point. Potential energy is recognized as restoring power as it tends to compel an object to return to its initial state of rest.

Potential energy works against any moving force so, when an item is lifted, it tries to return to its initial state of rest through the gravitational force. The energy that the object possesses while moving is kinetic energy. When the energy comes to a place of rest, that energy is called potential energy.

According to physics, an object can either possess potential energy or kinetic energy. However, this depends on the position of an object. Kinetic energy is a form of energy that an object possesses because of its motion. When an object moves from point A to point B, the energy possessed or displayed by such an object is known as kinetic energy. Kinetic energy is connected to the environment of an object. What this means is that you might not notice a moving object if other objects in that environment are accelerating as well. However, potential energy is the energy possessed by an object in its state of rest. Another name for potential energy is restoring energy because it is capable of restoring objects to their original state of rest. If you lift an object, it will return to its original state of rest. What usually enables this is the gravitational force.

When you say potential energy, this means that the body is at rest but it does not mean that the object does not have energy. Kinetic energy is the type of energy that is moving. It will be easy to go from having potential energy to kinetic energy especially when an object moves. Take note that potential energy will have the tendency to affect objects that are within the environment. Potential energy can also be transformed into different types of energy. There are times when you can tell what type of energy is available based on the position of the object. One example of an object that contains potential energy that can become kinetic energy is a battery.