Potential energy is the energy of a body or a system due to the position of the body or the arrangement of the particles of the system.
In physics, potential energy is the energy of a body or a system due to the position of the body or the arrangement of the particles of the system. The SI unit for measuring work and energy is the Joule (symbol $\mathrm{J}$).
The term "potential energy" was coined by the 19th-century Scottish engineer and physicist William Rankine.
Potential energy is closely linked with forces. If the work done moving along a path which starts and ends in the same location is zero, then the force is said to be conservative, and it is possible to define a numerical value of potential associated with every point in space. A force field can be re-obtained by taking the negative of the vector gradient of the potential field.
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Potential_energy&oldid=492762265
Examples of forms include:
