The energy associated with an object's position is called what?

• A. Kinetic energy
• B. Thermal energy
• C. Potential energy
• D. Chemical energy

Answer: (C)

Energy that depends on where an object is located is stored energy due to position. This is potential energy. It doesn’t matter how fast the object is moving; what matters is where it sits in a field (like gravity) or how stretched or compressed a system is (like a spring). For example, a rock held above the ground has gravitational potential energy proportional to its height, and a compressed spring has elastic potential energy proportional to how much it’s compressed. If the position changes, this stored energy can transform into motion or other forms of energy. In contrast, kinetic energy is the energy of motion, thermal energy relates to temperature and microscopic motion, and chemical energy is stored in chemical bonds.