Some of the content of this guide was modeled after a guide published by OpenStax and has been adapted for the NWP Learning Commons in March 2022. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons BY 4.0 International License.
When an object falls, gravity performs work on that object. The object's kinetic energy associated with that motion increases equivalent to the work performed by gravity. This brings a new concept into play: potential energy. This is energy associated with the position of a body in space rather than its motion. Energy is not added to the system, but energy is converted from potential energy to kinetic energy as the object falls. Other forms of potential energy are elastic potential energy and electric potential energy.
$${W_{grav}}={F}{s}={m}{g}({{y_1}-{y_2}})$$
$$F={F}_{gravity}={mg}$$
$$s=displacement={{y_1}-{y_2}}$$