Grade 6 Concepts
There are many forms of energy, but all can be put into two categories: kinetic and potential. Kineticenergy is associated with the motion of an object. The kinetic energy of an object changes when itsspeed changes. Potential energy is the energy of relative position between two interacting objects.
Potential energy transforms to kinetic energy and vice versa as the distance between objects changes.Using the word “stored” to define potential energy is misleading. The word “stored” implies that theenergy is kept by the object and not given away to another object. Therefore, kinetic energy also canbe classified as “stored” energy. A rocket moving at constant speed through empty space has kineticenergy and is not transferring any of this energy to another object.
Gravitational potential energy is associated with the height of an object above a reference position. Thegravitational potential energy of an object changes as its height above the reference changes. Thermalenergy can be thought of as the total amount of kinetic energy a substance has because of the randommotion of its atoms and molecules. Sound energy is associated with the back and forth movement ofthe particles of the medium through which it travels.