Classical Physics


The Physical Nature of Potential Energy

Authors: Guido F. Nelissen

‘Potential’ energy is generally defined as the energy that has to do with location relative to something else and therefore it is also called ‘energy of configuration'. The present physics doesn’t however tell us anything about the physical nature of this so-called ‘potential’ energy is and how and where it is physically stored. The only thing that we know is that in the case of conservative forces, the disappeared kinetic energy that is conserved as ‘potential’ energy, can be completely retransformed into kinetic energy. In my paper part 3 on the physical nature of kinetic energy, I have demonstrated that the kinetic energy of a particle system is a mathematical expression of its total amount of reversibly transferable translational motion. In the present paper I demonstrate that the concept of gravitational ‘potential’ energy is an excellent mathematical tool to calculate the speed of a falling object, but it creates a physical problem with the law of conservation of energy, because it supposes that both, the ‘kinetic energy’ as well as the ‘potential energy’, arise out of nothing, while the total amount of energy remains zero throughout the whole process. This allows me to demonstrate that the reversible transformation of ‘kinetic’ energy into ‘potential’ energy and vice versa, is a mathematical expression for the reversible transformation of one kind of congruent motion into another, which allows me to reveal the specific nature of the congruent motion that is associated with the mathematical concept of ‘potential’ energy. This will allow me in my next paper on ‘velocity’ to reveal the physical nature of variable velocity, and it will in my next papers on ‘mass’ and on ‘gravitation’ lead allow me to reveal the physical nature of respectively propelled acceleration and of gravitational acceleration.

Comments: 13 Pages.

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Submission history

[v1] 2019-04-25 14:00:00


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