Potential energy

Potential energy is energy due to the attraction between molecules.

States of matter

• solids have a larger potential energy store.
• liquids have much less potential energy.
• In theory, a gas has no potential energy.

Calculating potential energy

The potential energy and kinetic energy have to add up to make the total internal energy in the system, so to calculate potential energy, we do:

\text{potential energy}=\text{total energy}-\text{kinetic energy}