{ "model": { "rank": 3001, "code": "thing-q155640", "model_id": "vr.tr.potential-energy", "name": "potential energy", "purpose": "Let an agent explain potential energy and its kinds, compute potential energy in problems, relate it to conservation of energy, and describe applications from energy storage to binding energy.", "family": "Thing Registry", "category": "Cross-cutting context", "status": "research-draft", "kind": "thing", "plane": "XCT", "domain": "XCT.QLT", "industry": "", "version": "", "url": "/models/thing/q155640/", "tier": 2, "score": 93, "payload": { "layer": "wikidata", "aliases": [ "gravitational binding energy", "binding energy", "electric potential energy", "nuclear potential energy", "animal power", "gravitational energy", "tension energy", "chemical energy", "elastic energy", "quantum chromodynamics binding energy", "bond energy", "dissociation energy", "food energy" ], "aliasCount": 13, "merged": 13, "knownIn": 93, "facets": null, "markers": [], "lexicalClass": "", "senseRank": null, "alsoRegisteredAs": null, "source": { "dataset": "wikidata", "item": "Q155640", "url": "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q155640", "license": "CC0 1.0" } }, "research": { "vercy": "1.0-draft", "publication": { "status": "research-draft", "adjudicationStatus": "unreviewed", "publishableCanonical": false, "generatedAt": "2026-09-11T23:30:49Z", "providers": [ "Claude" ], "breadth": "written by Claude from model knowledge without web access - no source was read, every claim is a lead to verify", "pass": 2, "wave": 2, "engine": "claude" }, "metaModel": { "id": "THING-Q155640", "registryId": "vr.tr.potential-energy", "name": "potential energy", "version": "0.2.0-wave.2", "entryKind": "thing", "family": "Thing Registry", "domain": [ "XCT.QLT" ], "status": "research-draft" }, "canonicalUrl": "https://ver.cy/models/thing/q155640/", "model": { "registry_id": "vr.tr.potential-energy", "name": "potential energy", "purpose": "Let an agent explain potential energy and its kinds, compute potential energy in problems, relate it to conservation of energy, and describe applications from energy storage to binding energy.", "definition": "The energy stored in a system by virtue of its position, configuration or state, such as gravitational potential energy of a raised mass, elastic potential energy of a stretched spring, electric potential energy of charges, chemical potential energy in bonds and nuclear binding energy, convertible to kinetic and other forms; potential energy is defined relative to a reference and is central to mechanics, thermodynamics and engineering.", "what_it_is_for": "Stored energy of position or state.", "affordances": [ "explain kinds of potential energy", "compute potential energy", "relate to energy conservation", "describe applications" ], "distinguishing_features": [ "Stored energy", "Reference-dependent", "Convertible", "Many forms" ], "appearance": "Not physical; a quantity of a system.", "visual_identification": [ "Energy of position or configuration", "Relative to a reference", "Kinetic energy is energy of motion" ], "physical_properties": [], "families_and_kinds": [ "gravitational potential energy", "elastic potential energy", "electric potential energy", "chemical potential energy", "nuclear potential and binding energy" ], "related_models": [ { "relation": "is a kind of", "target": "mechanical energy", "why": "category" }, { "relation": "is a kind of", "target": "physical quantity", "why": "category" }, { "relation": "is related to", "target": "acceleration", "why": "motion under forces" }, { "relation": "is related to", "target": "nuclear fission", "why": "binding energy release" } ], "identifiers": [], "standards_and_regulation": [ "SI units of energy", "Engineering standards for energy storage" ], "failure_modes_and_hazards": [ "Confusing absolute and relative potential energy", "Sign errors", "Hazards of stored energy in springs and heights" ], "in_scope": [], "out_of_scope": [], "characteristics": [] }, "sources": [], "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "define", "name": "Define", "description": "What potential energy is.", "rationale": "Concepts.", "layers": [ { "id": "definition", "name": "Definition", "description": "Definition and reference.", "findings": [ { "id": "definition-finding", "name": "Definition", "description": "Definition.", "questions": [ { "text": "What is potential energy, why is it defined relative to a reference, and how does it relate to conservative forces?", "kind": "definition" }, { "text": "Which forms of potential energy exist?", "kind": "definition" } ] } ] }, { "id": "kinds", "name": "Kinds", "description": "Forms.", "findings": [ { "id": "kinds-finding", "name": "Kinds", "description": "Forms.", "questions": [ { "text": "How do gravitational, elastic, electric, chemical and nuclear potential energy differ?", "kind": "definition" }, { "text": "What is binding energy?", "kind": "definition" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "compute", "name": "Compute", "description": "Calculations.", "rationale": "Practice.", "layers": [ { "id": "problems", "name": "Problems", "description": "Solving problems.", "findings": [ { "id": "problems-finding", "name": "Problems", "description": "Problems.", "questions": [ { "text": "What is the potential energy in this situation, and how is energy conserved as it converts to kinetic energy?", "kind": "action" }, { "text": "How is gravitational potential energy computed near Earth and at large distances?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] }, { "id": "fields", "name": "Fields", "description": "Potential and fields.", "findings": [ { "id": "fields-finding", "name": "Fields", "description": "Fields.", "questions": [ { "text": "How do potential energy and potential relate to force fields?", "kind": "definition" }, { "text": "What are gravitational binding energy and electric potential energy of a configuration?", "kind": "definition" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "apply", "name": "Apply", "description": "Applications.", "rationale": "Engineering.", "layers": [ { "id": "storage", "name": "Storage", "description": "Energy storage.", "findings": [ { "id": "storage-finding", "name": "Storage", "description": "Storage.", "questions": [ { "text": "How is potential energy used in pumped hydro, springs, batteries and other storage?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which entry fits energy storage?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] }, { "id": "safety", "name": "Safety", "description": "Stored energy hazards.", "findings": [ { "id": "safety-finding", "name": "Safety", "description": "Safety.", "questions": [ { "text": "Which hazards arise from stored energy in heights, springs and pressure, and how are they controlled?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Is there a hazard now?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "learn", "name": "Learn", "description": "Teaching and history.", "rationale": "Education.", "layers": [ { "id": "teach", "name": "Teach", "description": "Teaching potential energy.", "findings": [ { "id": "teach-finding", "name": "Teach", "description": "Teaching.", "questions": [ { "text": "How can potential energy be taught with experiments and energy diagrams?", "kind": "action" }, { "text": "Which misconceptions arise?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] }, { "id": "history", "name": "History", "description": "History.", "findings": [ { "id": "history-finding", "name": "History", "description": "History.", "questions": [ { "text": "How did the concept of potential energy develop, from Rankine to modern physics?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which references are standard?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "openQuestions": [ "Should each form be a separate entry?", "How should physics resources be linked?", "How should energy storage technologies be linked?" ], "statistics": { "bundles": 4, "layers": 8, "findings": 8, "questions": 16 } }, "draft": { "generator": "vr.draft.v3", "status": "draft-generated", "researched": false, "archetype": "abstract concept", "method": "Written from the archetype playbook - what this kind of thing needs beyond identity and provenance - and from the structure that recurred across 6,333 models already researched by two engines. Applied to this entry by rule. No source was read for this thing and no claim here is researched. This entry carries no facets of its own, so they were inferred from its domain - a guess about a whole domain applied to one thing.", "facetsInferred": true, "nextPass": "A researcher replaces this draft with a sourced specification. Treat every sentence below as a proposal to argue with.", "purpose": "Give an agent a durable, checkable way to recognise a potential energy, record what state it is in, and decide what may be done with it.", "whatItIs": "Let an agent explain potential energy and its kinds, compute potential energy in problems, relate it to conservation of energy, and describe applications from energy storage to binding energy.", "characteristics": { "substance": "abstract", "origin": "conceptual", "agency": "inert" }, "whatYouCanDoWithIt": [ "observed and measured" ], "distinguishingFeatures": [ "Names folded into this entry, which a task may need to split apart again: gravitational binding energy, binding energy, electric potential energy, nuclear potential energy, animal power, gravitational energy, tension energy, chemical energy, elastic energy, quantum chromodynamics binding energy, bond energy, dissociation energy.", "13 finer distinctions are held as aliases rather than separate entries, because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it.", "Described in 93 Wikipedia languages, which is a measure of how widely the thing is known, not of how important it is." ], "openQuestionsForResearch": [ "Which of the bundles below does a real task actually need, and which are ceremony?", "What does this thing have that the facets do not capture at all?", "Which neighbouring kind is most often confused with a potential energy, and on what evidence are they told apart?" ], "whatItIsMadeOf": "an abstraction with no physical instance", "physicalCharacter": [ "Does nothing on its own; everything it does, something else did to it.", "These come from the domain this entry sits in rather than from the entry itself, so treat them as a first guess about the whole domain applied to one thing." ], "whatCanBeDoneWithIt": [ "observe it, measure it, record its state" ], "howItIsRecognised": [ "Nothing to see. What is recognised is an instance of it, and which instances count is exactly what is argued about." ], "relatedModels": [ { "relation": "covers", "note": "Finer kinds folded into this entry because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it. Each is a model waiting to be split out when one does.", "targets": [ "gravitational binding energy", "binding energy", "electric potential energy", "nuclear potential energy", "animal power", "gravitational energy", "tension energy", "chemical energy", "elastic energy", "quantum chromodynamics binding energy", "bond energy", "dissociation energy" ] } ], "standing": "Described in 93 Wikipedia languages, which measures how widely it is written about rather than how important or how common it is. 13 finer distinctions are held inside this entry as names rather than as separate models.", "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "identity-and-classification", "name": "Identity, naming and classification", "description": "How an agent tells one potential energy from another, and a potential energy from things that resemble it.", "rationale": "Recognition comes before every other claim. Without stable identity nothing else in the model can be trusted to be about the same thing twice.", "layers": [ { "id": "naming-and-identifiers", "name": "Names and identifiers", "description": "The names this thing goes by and the identifiers that survive translation and time.", "findings": [ { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases", "name": "Preferred name, aliases and local names", "description": "Which name to use, which names mean the same thing, and which merely sound similar.", "questions": [ { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the name of a potential energy, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the name of a potential energy, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the name of a potential energy is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers", "name": "Stable identifiers and external keys", "description": "Identifiers that keep pointing at this kind of thing across systems and languages.", "questions": [ { "id": "stable-identifiers-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes an identifier for a potential energy, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about an identifier for a potential energy, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once an identifier for a potential energy is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "classification-and-granularity", "name": "Classification and granularity", "description": "Where a potential energy sits among kinds, and how finely a task needs to cut it.", "findings": [ { "id": "kind-and-parents", "name": "Kind, parents and neighbouring kinds", "description": "The classes this thing belongs to and the ones it is next to.", "questions": [ { "id": "kind-and-parents-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the kind of a potential energy, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "kind-and-parents-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the kind of a potential energy, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "kind-and-parents-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the kind of a potential energy is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features", "name": "Distinguishing features", "description": "What separates a potential energy from the things most often confused with it.", "questions": [ { "id": "distinguishing-features-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes what distinguishes a potential energy, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about what distinguishes a potential energy, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once what distinguishes a potential energy is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "state-and-lifecycle", "name": "State and lifecycle", "description": "The states a potential energy passes through and the events that move it between them.", "rationale": "Most decisions about a thing depend on what state it is in now, which is a claim with a time on it, not a property.", "layers": [ { "id": "lifecycle-stages", "name": "Lifecycle stages", "description": "From coming into existence to ceasing to be one of these.", "findings": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions", "name": "Stages and transitions", "description": "The stages worth naming and what moves a potential energy between them.", "questions": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the lifecycle of a potential energy, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the lifecycle of a potential energy, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the lifecycle of a potential energy is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "observations-and-status", "name": "Observations and current status", "description": "What is observed about a potential energy, how often and by whom.", "findings": [ { "id": "observation-record", "name": "Observation record", "description": "How an observation of a potential energy is recorded so that it can be superseded rather than overwritten.", "questions": [ { "id": "observation-record-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes an observation of a potential energy, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "observation-record-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about an observation of a potential energy, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "observation-record-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once an observation of a potential energy is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "definitions-in-contest", "name": "Definitions and who holds them", "description": "What potential energy is taken to mean, and by whom.", "rationale": "When a field disagrees about a concept, the disagreement is the content. A model that picks one definition silently destroys the information.", "layers": [ { "id": "competing-definitions", "name": "Competing definitions", "description": "The main readings and the traditions behind them.", "findings": [ { "id": "definition-map", "name": "Definitions and their holders", "description": "Each definition with the school or body that holds it.", "questions": [ { "id": "definition-map-q01", "text": "Which definitions of potential energy are in use, and which tradition or body holds each?", "kind": "definition" }, { "id": "definition-map-q02", "text": "What turns on the difference between them in practice?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "operationalisation", "name": "Operationalisation", "description": "How it is measured or applied when it has to be.", "findings": [ { "id": "operational-record", "name": "Measures and proxies", "description": "Instruments and indicators used to stand in for it.", "questions": [ { "id": "operational-record-q01", "text": "How is potential energy operationalised or measured in practice, and by what instrument?", "kind": "measurement" }, { "id": "operational-record-q02", "text": "What does that operationalisation leave out, and when does that matter?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "instances-and-use", "name": "Instances, use and consequence", "description": "What counts as an instance of potential energy and what follows from calling something that.", "rationale": "Applying a concept is an act with consequences, so a model must say what the label licenses and what it does not.", "layers": [ { "id": "instances", "name": "What counts as an instance", "description": "Clear cases, borderline cases and non-cases.", "findings": [ { "id": "instance-tests", "name": "Tests for an instance", "description": "What would settle whether something falls under it.", "questions": [ { "id": "instance-tests-q01", "text": "What would settle whether something is an instance of potential energy?", "kind": "boundary" }, { "id": "instance-tests-q02", "text": "Which borderline cases are argued about, and on what grounds?", "kind": "definition" } ] } ] }, { "id": "consequence", "name": "Consequence of application", "description": "Rights, duties or decisions that follow from the label.", "findings": [ { "id": "consequence-record", "name": "What the label licenses", "description": "What an agent may do once something is classified this way.", "questions": [ { "id": "consequence-record-q01", "text": "What follows practically once something is treated as potential energy?", "kind": "action" }, { "id": "consequence-record-q02", "text": "What must an agent not infer from the label alone?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "provenance-and-evidence", "name": "Provenance, evidence and time", "description": "Where every claim about a potential energy came from and when it held.", "rationale": "A claim without a source and a time cannot be superseded, only overwritten, and an agent that overwrites loses the ability to explain itself.", "layers": [ { "id": "source-and-authority", "name": "Source and authority", "description": "Who said it, on what evidence, and how strongly.", "findings": [ { "id": "claim-provenance", "name": "Claim provenance and confidence", "description": "The authority behind each claim about a potential energy and how confident it is.", "questions": [ { "id": "claim-provenance-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes a claim about a potential energy, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "claim-provenance-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about a claim about a potential energy, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "claim-provenance-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once a claim about a potential energy is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "time-and-versions", "name": "Time, versions and supersession", "description": "When a claim was true, when it was learnt, and what replaced it.", "findings": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession", "name": "Validity period and supersession", "description": "How an old claim about a potential energy is retired without being erased.", "questions": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the validity of a claim about a potential energy, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the validity of a claim about a potential energy, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the validity of a claim about a potential energy is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "statistics": { "bundles": 5, "layers": 10, "findings": 12, "questions": 32 } } } }