7.6 - Elastic Potential Energy

Stretching or squashing stores elastic potential energy

• Stretching, squashing, or bending an object transfers energy to its elastic potential energy store.
• An object deforms elastically when it returns to its original shape once the forces are removed.
• Doing work to deform an elastic object transfers energy to its elastic potential energy store. When the spring pushes or pulls back, that energy transfers back to the object's kinetic energy store.