Elastic Potential Energy

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Have you ever kicked a soccer ball, ridden a bike, or even just turned on the television?

All of that takes energy.

Energy is what makes things happen. It’s the power behind every movement, every sound, and every light that shines.

Without energy, nothing would move. Nothing would change.
You couldn’t run. Cars wouldn’t drive. Phones wouldn’t turn on. Even plants couldn’t grow.

There are two main types of energy you’ll hear about in science:
Kinetic energy and potential energy.

Let’s break it down.

Kinetic energy is the energy of motion.
If something is moving, it has kinetic energy.

Think of:

A surfer cruising though a hollow wave,

A basketball flying through the air,

A dog sprinting across the yard,

Or a fighter jet slicing through the sky with engines roaring.

The faster something moves, the more kinetic energy it has.

Now, on the flip side, we have potential energy—this is energy that’s stored.
It’s not moving right now, but it could move.

Picture a rollercoaster at the top of the hill,

A stretched rubber band ready to snap,

Or a boulder at rest at the top of a mountain.

All of these things have potential energy, because they’re in a position to move—but haven’t yet.

One special kind of potential energy is called elastic potential energy.

This happens when you stretch, squash, or bend something—and it tries to snap back into shape.

Think about a rubber band.
When you pull it, you’re storing energy in it.
Let it go, and snap!—that stored energy turns into motion.

Or picture a spring in a wind-up toy.
You wind it up, and it gets tighter and tighter.
That’s energy being stored.
Then when you let go, it unwinds and sets the toy in motion.

Finally, consider an archer with a bow and arrow. When the archer pulls back on the string, the arrow stores elastic potential energy. And the further the string is pulled back, the more elastic potential energy it gains. What's more, the more elastic potential energy it stores, the faster and further it will go! That's pretty cool!

So, elastic potential energy is all about things that can change shape and then return to their original shape—like springs, rubber bands, trampolines, archery bows and even diving boards.

Whatever the type of elastic potential energy—whether it’s a spring, a rubber band, or a stretched slingshot—
once it’s released, the stored energy transforms into kinetic energy.