The potential energy associated with a conservative force is the amount
of work that would be done on the system by the conservative force if
the system was brought to its reference configuration. Note that the
work done by the conservative force is not necessarily the net work done
on the system or the amount of "doable work".
The phrase "potential energy" either engenders or reinforces the
following misconception in the minds of many students in their first
physics course: that "potential energy" isn't really energy, it's just
the potential to have energy. I prefer the phrase "configuration
energy", but it's definitely nonstandard, and "potential energy" is very
firmly established in physics nomenclature.
On 10/02/06 at 1:41 PM John Denker wrote, in part:
Equating energy with doable work is just not correct. This is
not a nitpick; the distinction sheds light on the meaning of
the first law, and is central to the meaning of the second law.
Daniel Crowe
Loudoun Academy of Science
dcrowe@loudoun.k12.va.us