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Kinetic energy

Review your understanding of kinetic energy in this free article aligned to NGSS standards.

Key points:

  • Kinetic energy is the energy that any object with mass has simply because it is moving. If an object is not moving, it has no kinetic energy.
  • An object’s kinetic energy is directly related to its mass. Imagine two objects moving at the same speed. If one object has twice the mass of the other, it will also have twice the kinetic energy.
  • An object’s kinetic energy is also related to the squared value of its speed. Imagine two objects with the same mass. If one is moving at twice the speed of the other, the faster object will have four times the kinetic energy.

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