What term refers to energy stored by objects due to their position above Earth's surface?

• A. Gravitational Potential Energy
• B. Kinetic Energy
• C. Work
• D. Power

Answer: (A)

This is about energy stored because of an object's height in Earth's gravitational field. When you lift something, you do work against gravity, and that work is stored as gravitational potential energy. Near Earth's surface this energy is well approximated by mgh, where m is the object's mass, g is the acceleration due to gravity, and h is the height above a chosen reference level. The higher the object, the more energy is stored.

This energy remains until the object moves to a different height, at which point it can be converted into kinetic energy or other forms. The other terms describe different ideas: kinetic energy is energy of motion, work is the transfer of energy by a force, and power is the rate at which work is done.