Spring Potential Energy Calculator

About this calculator

The elastic potential energy stored in an ideal spring follows directly from Hooke's law: as a spring is compressed or stretched by a displacement x from equilibrium, it stores energy E = ½kx², where k is the spring constant (stiffness, in N/m). Because the restoring force grows linearly with displacement, the stored energy grows with the square of displacement, not linearly.

This is one of the fundamental relationships in mechanics, underlying everything from car suspension design and mechanical clocks to pogo sticks and archery bows. Physics students and mechanical engineers use it to compute how much energy a spring can release, or to size a spring for a desired amount of stored energy at a given compression.