Answer to Question #85296 in Classical Mechanics for Murari

Question

When a body has stored PE then when does it convert into another form like KE?
Is it that it converts only when a conservative force works on it?
Eg a ball falling down has KE
Because it's PE is converting into KE
Why doesn't Conservative force store KE directly instead of converting PE into KE?

Answer 1

Potential energy converts into another form of energy when the body changes its position in the field of some conservative force. Potential energy always associated with some field of some conservative force (electrical, gravitational).

Conservative force doesn’t store any energy! Energy can be stored only in the object or the field.