Kinetic and potential energy, work and power calculator

Kinetic energy is KE = ½mv²; with mass in kilograms and speed in metres per second the result is in joules. Because speed is squared, doubling it quadruples the energy: a 1,000 kg car has 200 kJ at 20 m/s and 800 kJ at 40 m/s. Rearranged for speed, v = √(2KE ÷ m), so a 0.145 kg ball carrying 100 J moves at 37.1 m/s.

Work is energy transferred by a force, W = Fd cos θ, measured in joules; power is how fast that transfer happens, P = W ÷ t, measured in watts, where 1 W = 1 J/s. Lifting 50 kg through 10 m takes 4,903 J however it is done; doing it in 5 s needs 981 W, and spreading it over 60 s needs 81.7 W.

One kilowatt-hour is 3,600,000 J, because it is 1,000 W sustained for 3,600 s. One kilocalorie, the food Calorie, is 4,184 J, using the thermochemical calorie of exactly 4.184 J listed in NIST SP 811. The 200,000 J carried by a 1,000 kg car at 20 m/s is therefore 0.0556 kWh, or about 47.8 kcal.

Without air resistance the impact speed is v = √(2gh), whatever the mass. A drop from 20 m ends at 19.81 m/s (71.3 km/h); a drop from 5 m ends at 9.90 m/s. Speed grows with the square root of height, so four times the height only doubles the speed. Air drag makes real speeds lower, most of all for light objects and long falls.

A spring stores E = ½kx², where k is the spring constant in N/m and x the extension or compression in metres. A 200 N/m spring compressed by 10 cm stores 1 J; compressed by 20 cm it stores 4 J. The formula holds only within the elastic range, where Hooke's law F = kx applies and the spring returns to its original length.

准确性取决于输入值和方法的假设。十进制运算使用50位有效数字，但估算、数值方法和源数据的精度可能较低；显示时的舍入并不能消除这些限制。 已按独立来源核验的计算示例：8。 例如，“1000 kg car at 20 m/s”根据Python 3.8 decimal: ½ × 1000 × 20² = 200000 J = 0.0555… kWh进行核验。

OpenStax University Physics Volume 1, ch. 7 Work and kinetic energy; ch. 8 Potential energy and conservation of energy; HyperPhysics — Work, energy and power.