Is potential energy theoretical?

All of physics is technically Theoretical! Just as much as math is too! It's is just a way we humans can quantize and qualatatively explain nature, really complex phenomena. read more

We could go farther and say it was dropped from a height of h to reach the velocity v. Then we can say that the kinetic energy originated in the potential energy mgh. I do not see the difference, where potential is more “theoretical” than kinetic. read more

This potential energy becomes kinetic energy as the ball accelerates towards the ground. The object's total energy can be found through the sum of these to energies. In an exothermic chemical reaction, potential energy is the source of energy. read more

Large scale, ab initio configuration interaction calculations are reported on the ground state potential energy surface of the HCO system. The calculated equilibrium geometry of HCO of R CH =1.12 Å, R CO =1.19 Å, and ϑ HCO =126° is in good agreement with that determined experimentally, although the calculated H–CO bond strength D e =16 kcal/mole is too small by ∼3 kcal/mole. read more