What can an object with mechanical energy do?
1 Answer
It can use it to do work, or more simply, to move or to be able to move!
Explanation:
Mechanical energy is like money in the bank; part of it in a saving account (potential energy) and part in a normal account that you can use immediately (kinetic energy).
You can do "things" with your money, such as, buy stuff, pay bills, etc. Also you can transfer some of it from the normal account to the savings to buy, in the future, something more expensive.
Consider a simple pendulum (a bob hanging from a string). Left alone at rest it isn't very interesting...it doesn't do anything; if you now move the bob from its equilibrium position the thing becomes interesting. The system becomes "energized" (like your bank account when you put money in it) and it can do things. When you release the bob the money/mechanical energy starts to be transformed from potential (bob displaced) into kinetic energy (bob moving) and vice-versa.
The pendulum has mechanical energy that can appear alternately as "position" energy or "movement" energy that are two aspects of the same Mechanical Energy it received from you at the start.
