Energy Stores - The Foundation of Everything
Think of energy stores as different ways that energy can be "kept" in objects and systems around you. Just like money can be stored in different accounts, energy can be stored in eight main ways that explain pretty much everything happening in physics.
Kinetic energy is what moving objects have - your bike when you're cycling, a football flying through the air, or even tiny particles vibrating in hot objects. The faster something moves, the more kinetic energy it has.
Chemical energy sits locked up in the bonds between atoms and molecules. This is the energy in your food, in batteries, and in fuels like petrol. When these bonds break or form, energy gets released or absorbed.
Quick Check: Look around right now - can you spot something with kinetic energy and something with chemical energy?
Gravitational potential energy is stored in anything that's been lifted up against gravity. A book on a shelf has more gravitational potential energy than the same book on the floor. Drop it, and that stored energy converts to kinetic energy as it falls.
The remaining five energy stores - thermal energy (heat in particles), nuclear energy (in atomic nuclei), electrostatic energy (in separated charges), magnetic energy (in separated magnetic poles), and elastic potential energy (in stretched or compressed objects) - work similarly but in different situations. Master these concepts and you'll understand the energy behind almost every physics problem you'll face.