Kinetic energy is the energy an object has because it's moving — the faster or heavier it is, the more kinetic energy it carries.
Kinetic energy is the energy an object has because it's moving — the faster or heavier it is, the more kinetic energy it carries. This calculator finds the kinetic energy in joules from an object's mass and velocity.
A 1200 kg car travels at 20 m/s. Kinetic Energy = 0.5 × 1200 × 20² = 0.5 × 1200 × 400 = 240,000 J (240 kJ).
Kinetic energy = 0.5 × mass × velocity², typically in joules using SI units.
Because velocity is squared in the formula, doubling speed quadruples kinetic energy while doubling mass only doubles it.
It's part of why higher-speed crashes are dramatically more dangerous, since energy increases with the square of speed.