Hi everyone, I'm going to jump into the lions den  This is my 2 euros worth  Lets take an atom of gas, any gas, it has electrons and photons - and +, when it is a stable gas it is in balance, like a seesaw not moving, and does not have any energy. It may have potential energy, but until there is an alteration to that atom of gas to make it unstable there is no potential difference. Now if we introduce an outside potential we can upset that balance, lets say by ionisation, we move some of those low orbiting electrons away from there warm cosy dormant atom. That atom now has an in balance and has become awake, it does not like being awake, it becomes agitated, it has gained energy, that dormant potential has now become real potential until it can get back the electron or electrons it has lost. That atom will try all it can to gain back what it lost so as it can go back to sleep it will get back it's own electron or grab another atoms electron even if the other atom was a different gas, and share an electron, two in the same bed and make a new molecule, like making babies Now if we keep the atom sufficiently agitated that it can't stabilise, that atom will eventually split apart to go in different directions to try and stabilise itself in two halves  to do that the potential has gone nuclear Nasa we have a power station in the building So what do we have, when the atoms are stable there is NO energy, NO potential difference, when it is unstable we have energy, the atom is unbalanced, there is a potential difference within the atom structure. Two distinct and different states of potential, of course depends on ones apprehension of potential, the word Mike 
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"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed, second it is violently opposed, and third, it is accepted as self-evident."
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Topic: Potential Energy (Read 23700 times)
