Difference Between Static Energy and Kinetic Energy

Static Energy vs Kinetic Energy

Energy is defined as our ability to do work. Energy takes many forms and it can neither be created nor destroyed. The total energy of the universe remains constant and just changes itself into different forms such as light energy, heat energy, fuel energy, wave energy, sound energy, chemical energy and so on. Energy can be stored in an object (potential energy), or it can be because of its movement (kinetic energy). Kinetic energy is the energy that is a characteristic of moving objects. Any object having higher kinetic energy will move faster. There is another kind of energy known as static energy or static electricity that many people tend to confuse because of the word static and think of it as being opposite to kinetic energy which is the result of movement of the object. However, it is not so and the confusion will be removed once the article is complete.

Kinetic Energy

Kinetic energy of a moving object is dependent both upon its mass as well as its velocity and is calculated using the following formula.

K.E = ½ mv2

This implies that an object, even if it is small can have very high amount of kinetic energy if it is moving at a great velocity. This is why a small bullet has such a high impact. On the other hand, when we strike a hammer in a wooden piece, the velocity of the hammer is low but it has much mass to drive the nail inside the wood. In this case, the kinetic energy of the hammer, when it strikes the nail gets transferred to the nail while some of it is lost because of friction while some gets dissipated in the form of heat transferred to the head of the nail and wood and some gets lost in the form of sound that is created when hammer strikes the nail.

Static Energy

Every matter is made up of atoms and in normal circumstances all matter is electrically neutral as positive charges inside it are cancelled out by equal positive charges. This is because of equal number of protons (positive charges) and electrons (negative charges) in an atom. Thus all atoms (or matter) is electrically neutral and has no net charge. Let us see what happens when you rub an inflated rubber balloon on your head. As told earlier, the rubber of balloon has charges cancelled out as it contains an equal number of positive and negative charges. But when this balloon is rubbed over head, some of the loose electrons (negative charges) leave the surface of or head and stick to the balloon making it unstable and negatively charged while the loss of negative charge from our hair that are otherwise neutral makes them positively charged. Thus you see individual strands of hair sticking out while the balloon gets stuck to the wall. This is because of static energy (electricity generated in the balloon and your hair. Some matter holds on to their electrons very tightly and thus they do not exhibit this static electricity while there are some that have electrons loosely placed that makes it possible to lose them.

Thus static energy or electricity is the imbalance of positive and negative charges and not energy really which is why the term static energy is a misnomer.

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