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Is food potential or kinetic energy? How bout drying clothes?
Food is neither one. Potential and kinetic energy refers to mechanical energy, not to the energy tied up in food (or drying). Food is chemical energy.
Drying clothes (in a dryer) is a transfer of heat energy to the water molecules which helps them evaporate. On a clothes line, evaporation of the water in the clothes is aided by the movement of air across the surface of the clothes (I.e. the wind), along with the sun shine providing additional heat energy.
As I see it, Food can become potential energy only after it is consumed and metabolized by the body and then it can be converted into kinetic energy or stored as potential energy. But then I'm a little picky about semantics. Food IMO. is more like a fuel for creating potential energy.
