The watermelon versus rubber band experiment is not only a fun project to do, but also educational. The underlying understanding of this project can go back to the concepts of both potential and kinetic energy. Both kinetic and potential energy can be traced back to Aristotle's concepts of potentiality and actuality. Kinetic energy came first, as it was the first form of energy that was identified. It was first discovered by both Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz and Johann Bernoulli. Wilhelm and Bernoulli were both mathematicians in their times, with Wilhelm adding more to his legacy by also being a philosopher and logician. They described their newly founded notion as the “living force.” In addition, they developed the principle that E ∝ mv^2. In later years, the notion was further developed by other important figureheads, such as Gaspard-Gustave Coriolis. Coriolis advanced people’s knowledge over kinetic energy by writing an important paper expanding on the concept. However, through the years of it being known, up to this point, it still did not have a proper name. Lord Kelvin and Thomas Young then finally gave it the name we know today. Energy that a body possesses by virtue of being in motion is the definition of kinetic energy that is used today. The formula for kinetic energy that we use today is KE= 1/2 x mv^2, or kinetic energy is one half the product of mass and the square of its velocity. Soon after kinetic energy was discovered potential energy was discovered. The term potential energy was introduced by William Rankine, an engineer and physicist from the 19th century. Potential energy is thought of as energy stored in a physical system. Potential energy is just as it is named, a form of energy that has the potential to be converted into other forms of energy like kinetic energy. Any object we can possibly think of think of has energy stored in it. It is important to understand the basics of energy to fully grasp the concept of something as specific as potential and kinetic energy. Energy is not something that can be created, nor can it be destroyed. The only things it can do is be stored or converted from one form of energy to another. There are multiple sources of energy such as water, sun, and wind. Different forms of energy include (and is not limited to) chemical, thermal, mechanical, and electrical energy. These categories themselves and all energy in this world can be classified under potential or kinetic energy. Energy that is due to position is potential energy, while kinetic energy is due to motion. Both of these concepts are intertwined with one another. When an object is close to the center of gravity of Earth, it has less potential energy. There are many different forms of potential energy such as elastic potential energy, gravitational potential energy and chemical potential energy. Gravitational potential energy is the energy stored in an object as a result of its vertical position or height. The energy that is stored is a result of the gravitational attraction to the Earth for the object. Elastic potential energy is the energy stored in elastic materials such as rubber bands, bungee cords, and springs due to their stretching or compressing. The amount of potential energy stored in the object is related to the amount of stretch on the object, the more the object is stretched the more potential energy there is. Our project used an example of potential energy, elastic potential energy, this form of potential energy was used when we stretched the rubber bands that went around the watermelon. The energy that was stored in the rubber bands was released when the watermelon burst.