Energy vs. Force: Know the Difference
By Shumaila Saeed || Published on January 5, 2024
Energy is the capacity to do work or cause physical change; unit: Joules. Force is a push or pull upon an object resulting from its interaction with another object; unit: Newtons.
Key Differences
Energy is a measure of a system's capacity to perform work or produce change, like kinetic or potential energy. Force, however, is an interaction that causes an object to accelerate or decelerate.
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Jan 05, 2024
Energy can be stored in various forms, such as chemical, thermal, or electrical. In contrast, Force is an immediate interaction, like gravity or friction, acting upon an object.
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Energy is conserved in a closed system, following the law of conservation of energy. On the other hand, Force can change an object's motion or shape but doesn't get conserved.
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Energy transfer does not require direct contact between objects, like in radiation. Conversely, Force often requires contact or a field, like magnetic or gravitational fields.
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In practical terms, Energy can be used to quantify the work done by or on an object. Force, however, describes how strongly an object is pushed or pulled.
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Comparison Chart
Forms
Kinetic, potential, thermal, etc.
Gravitational, frictional, magnetic, etc.
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Conservation
Conserved in closed systems
Not conserved, but can change motion
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Interaction
Can be transferred without direct contact
Requires contact or a field
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Energy and Force Definitions
Energy
Represents the ability to perform work.
Wind turbines convert kinetic energy into electrical energy.
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Force
A push or pull on an object.
Magnetic force pulled the iron filings towards the magnet.
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Energy
Can be stored in various forms like potential energy.
The compressed spring has stored mechanical energy.
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Force
The attractive force between masses.
Gravity force keeps us anchored to the Earth.
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Energy
Refers to thermal energy in a system.
Geothermal plants harness the Earth's internal heat energy.
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Force
Resistance between surfaces in contact.
Frictional force slows down moving objects.
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Energy
Energy in the form of electric potential.
Batteries store electrical energy for later use.
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Force
The capacity to do work or cause physical change; energy, strength, or active power
The force of an explosion.
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Energy
The capacity for work or vigorous activity
Who has the energy to climb that trail?.
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Force
Power made operative against resistance; exertion
Use force in driving a nail.
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Energy
Also energies Exertion of vigor or power
A project requiring a great deal of time and energy.
Devoted her energies to writing songs.
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Force
The use of physical power or violence to compel or restrain
A confession obtained by force.
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Energy
Vitality and intensity of expression
A speech delivered with energy and emotion.
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Force
Intellectual power or vigor, especially as conveyed in writing or speech.
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Energy
(Informal) A nonphysical force or quality perceived as inhering in a particular place, person, or situation
Was turned off by the group's negative energy.
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Energy
Usable heat or power
Each year Americans consume a high percentage of the world's energy.
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Force
A capacity for affecting the mind or behavior; efficacy
The force of logical argumentation.
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Force
A body of persons or other resources organized or available for a certain purpose
A large labor force.
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Energy
A form, amount, or level of this capacity
"a searing beam of 30 trillion protons, with energies up to 50 million electronvolts" (Science News).
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Force
A person or group capable of influential action
A retired senator who is still a force in national politics.
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Force
A unit of a nation's military personnel, especially one deployed into combat
Our armed forces have at last engaged the enemy.
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Energy
(physics) A quantity that denotes the ability to do work and is measured in a unit dimensioned in mass × distance²/time² (ML²/T²) or the equivalent.
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Force
A vector quantity indicating the strength and direction of the capacity to accelerate a body. Newton's second law of motion states that a free body accelerates in the direction of the net force and that its acceleration is directly proportional to the force and inversely proportional to its mass.
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Energy
An intangible, modifiable force (often characterized as either 'positive' or 'negative') believed in some New Age religions to emanate from a person, place or thing and which is (or can be) preserved and transferred in human interactions; shared mood or group habit; a vibe, a feeling, an impression. aura.}}
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Energy
The external actions and influences resulting from an entity’s internal nature (ousia) and by which it is made manifest, as opposed to that internal nature itself; the aspect of an entity that can affect the wider world and be apprehended by other beings.
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Energy
A measure of how many actions a player or unit can take; in the fantasy genre often called magic points or mana.
Action points
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Force
To compel through pressure or necessity
I forced myself to practice daily. He was forced to take a second job.
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Energy
Internal or inherent power; capacity of acting, operating, or producing an effect, whether exerted or not; as, men possessing energies may suffer them to lie inactive.
The great energies of nature are known to us only by their effects.
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Energy
Power efficiently and forcibly exerted; vigorous or effectual operation; as, the energy of a magistrate.
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Force
To move or effect against resistance or inertia
Forced my foot into the shoe.
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Energy
Strength of expression; force of utterance; power to impress the mind and arouse the feelings; life; spirit; - said of speech, language, words, style; as, a style full of energy.
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Energy
(physics) the capacity of a physical system to do work; the units of energy are joules or ergs;
Energy can take a wide variety of forms
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Force
To produce with effort and against one's will
Force a laugh in spite of pain.
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Energy
Enterprising or ambitious drive;
Europeans often laugh at American energy
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Energy
An imaginative lively style (especially style of writing);
His writing conveys great energy
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Energy
A healthy capacity for vigorous activity;
Jogging works off my excess energy
He seemed full of vim and vigor
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Energy
The federal department responsible for maintaining a national energy policy of the United States; created in 1977
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Energy
Contained in the bonds of chemical compounds.
Gasoline has high chemical energy, which powers engines.
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Force
To induce change in (a complex system) by changing one of its parameters
Greenhouse gases that force the earth's climate.
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Force
(Botany) To cause to grow or mature by artificially accelerating normal processes.
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Force
To allow (a run) to be scored by walking a batter when the bases are loaded.
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Force
Strength or energy of body or mind; active power; vigour; might; capacity of exercising an influence or producing an effect.
The force of an appeal, an argument, or a contract
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Force
Power exerted against will or consent; compulsory power; violence; coercion.
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Force
(countable) Anything that is able to make a substantial change in a person or thing.
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Force
A physical quantity that denotes ability to push, pull, twist or accelerate a body and which has a direction and is measured in a unit dimensioned in mass × distance/time² (ML/T²): SI: newton (N); CGS: dyne (dyn)
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Force
Something or anything that has the power to produce a physical effect upon something else, such as causing it to move or change shape.
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Force
(countable) A group that aims to attack, control, or constrain.
Reinforcemented increased the American force in the area to 9,000
Police force
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Force
(uncountable) The ability to attack, control, or constrain.
Show of force
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Force
(countable) A magic trick in which the outcome is known to the magician beforehand, especially one involving the apparent free choice of a card by another person.
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Force
(legal) Either unlawful violence, as in a "forced entry", or lawful compulsion.
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Force
Ability of an utterance or its element (word, form, prosody, ...) to effect a given meaning.
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Force
|often|capitalized}}Star Wars A metaphysical and ubiquitous power from the fictional Star Wars universe created by George Lucas. See usage note.
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Force
(transitive) To constrain by force; to overcome the limitations or resistance of.
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Force
(transitive) To drive (something) by force, to propel (generally + prepositional phrase or adverb).
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Force
(transitive) To cause to occur (despite inertia, resistance etc.); to produce through force.
The comedian's jokes weren't funny, but I forced a laugh now and then.
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Force
To obtain or win by strength; to take by violence or struggle; specifically, to capture by assault; to storm, as a fortress.
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Force
To create an out by touching a base in advance of a runner who has no base to return to while in possession of a ball which has already touched the ground.
Jones forced the runner at second by stepping on the bag.
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Force
(whist) To compel (an adversary or partner) to trump a trick by leading a suit that he/she does not hold.
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Force
(archaic) To put in force; to cause to be executed; to make binding; to enforce.
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Force
(archaic) To provide with forces; to reinforce; to strengthen by soldiers; to man; to garrison.
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Force
To stuff; to lard; to farce.
Wit larded with malice, and malice forced with wit.
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Force
To constrain to do or to forbear, by the exertion of a power not resistible; to compel by physical, moral, or intellectual means; to coerce; as, masters force slaves to labor.
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Force
To compel, as by strength of evidence; as, to force conviction on the mind.
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Force
To do violence to; to overpower, or to compel by violence to one's will; especially, to ravish; to violate; to commit rape upon.
To force their monarch and insult the court.
I should have forced thee soon wish other arms.
To force a spotless virgin's chastity.
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Force
To obtain, overcome, or win by strength; to take by violence or struggle; specifically, to capture by assault; to storm, as a fortress; as, to force the castle; to force a lock.
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Force
To impel, drive, wrest, extort, get, etc., by main strength or violence; - with a following adverb, as along, away, from, into, through, out, etc.
It stuck so fast, so deeply buried layThat scarce the victor forced the steel away.
To force the tyrant from his seat by war.
Ethelbert ordered that none should be forced into religion.
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Force
To put in force; to cause to be executed; to make binding; to enforce.
What can the church force more?
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Force
To exert to the utmost; to urge; hence, to strain; to urge to excessive, unnatural, or untimely action; to produce by unnatural effort; as, to force a conceit or metaphor; to force a laugh; to force fruits.
High on a mounting wave my head I bore,Forcing my strength, and gathering to the shore.
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Force
To compel (an adversary or partner) to trump a trick by leading a suit of which he has none.
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Force
To provide with forces; to reënforce; to strengthen by soldiers; to man; to garrison.
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Force
To allow the force of; to value; to care for.
For me, I force not argument a straw.
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Force
To use violence; to make violent effort; to strive; to endeavor.
Forcing with gifts to win his wanton heart.
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Force
To make a difficult matter of anything; to labor; to hesitate; hence, to force of, to make much account of; to regard.
Your oath once broke, you force not to forswear.
I force not of such fooleries.
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Force
To be of force, importance, or weight; to matter.
It is not sufficient to have attained the name and dignity of a shepherd, not forcing how.
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Force
Capacity of exercising an influence or producing an effect; strength or energy of body or mind; active power; vigor; might; often, an unusual degree of strength or energy; especially, power to persuade, or convince, or impose obligation; pertinency; validity; special signification; as, the force of an appeal, an argument, a contract, or a term.
He was, in the full force of the words, a good man.
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Force
Power exerted against will or consent; compulsory power; violence; coercion; as, by force of arms; to take by force.
Which now they hold by force, and not by right.
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Force
Strength or power for war; hence, a body of land or naval combatants, with their appurtenances, ready for action; - an armament; troops; warlike array; - often in the plural; hence, a body of men prepared for action in other ways; as, the laboring force of a plantation; the armed forces.
Is Lucius general of the forces?
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Force
Strength or power exercised without law, or contrary to law, upon persons or things; violence.
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Force
Any action between two bodies which changes, or tends to change, their relative condition as to rest or motion; or, more generally, which changes, or tends to change, any physical relation between them, whether mechanical, thermal, chemical, electrical, magnetic, or of any other kind; as, the force of gravity; cohesive force; centrifugal force.
Thy tears are of no force to mollifyThis flinty man.
More huge in strength than wise in works he was.
Adam and first matron EveHad ended now their orisons, and foundStrength added from above, new hope to springOut of despair.
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Force
A unit that is part of some military service;
He sent Caesar a force of six thousand men
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Force
One possessing or exercising power or influence or authority;
The mysterious presence of an evil power
May the force be with you
The forces of evil
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Force
(physics) the influence that produces a change in a physical quantity;
Force equals mass times acceleration
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Force
Group of people willing to obey orders;
A public force is necessary to give security to the rights of citizens
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Force
A powerful effect or influence;
The force of his eloquence easily persuaded them
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Force
An act of aggression (as one against a person who resists);
He may accomplish by craft in the long run what he cannot do by force and violence in the short one
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Force
Physical energy or intensity;
He hit with all the force he could muster
It was destroyed by the strength of the gale
A government has not the vitality and forcefulness of a living man
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Force
A group of people having the power of effective action;
He joined forces with a band of adventurers
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Force
To cause to do through pressure or necessity, by physical, moral or intellectual means :
She forced him to take a job in the city
He squeezed her for information
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Force
Impose or thrust urgently, importunately, or inexorably;
She forced her diet fads on him
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Force
Squeeze like a wedge into a tight space;
I squeezed myself into the corner
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Force
Force into or from an action or state, either physically or metaphorically;
She rammed her mind into focus
He drives me mad
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Force
Force exerted by a person or another object.
He applied force to open the stuck window.
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Force
The total force acting on an object.
The net force determined the box's acceleration.
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Repeatedly Asked Queries
Can energy be created or destroyed?
No, it can only be transformed (conservation of energy).
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Jan 05, 2024
Does force have to involve contact?
Not always, it can be exerted through fields like gravity.
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Is energy transfer always visible?
Not necessarily, like in the case of heat radiation.
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Can force change an object's motion?
Yes, it can accelerate or decelerate an object.
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What is potential energy?
Energy stored due to an object's position or state.
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Does energy always cause motion?
Not always, it can be stored as potential energy.
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How is net force calculated?
By summing all the individual forces acting on an object.
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What forms can energy take?
Kinetic, potential, thermal, chemical, electrical, etc.
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What is frictional force?
The resistance force between two surfaces in contact.
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Jan 05, 2024
How does a magnet exert force?
Through a magnetic field, without direct contact.
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Jan 05, 2024
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About Author
Written by
Shumaila SaeedShumaila Saeed, an expert content creator with 6 years of experience, specializes in distilling complex topics into easily digestible comparisons, shining a light on the nuances that both inform and educate readers with clarity and accuracy.
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