Difference between electrical charge and energy?

[browndn]

what is the difference between a charge and energy? i dont much about this so i was just wondering because you can convert electricity [store it] and then use it for energy. like turning on a light bulb. i might be missing something here so please clarify

[dirtyamerica]

When you say "electrical charge" I think stored electrical energy. I think that, often enough, the term "energy" might have a connotation of power usage or kinetic energy...

 

There is stored energy that is thermal, tidal, chemical, nuclear...etc.

 

 

Hmm. Technically, electrical charge is but one out of many forms of (stored) energy. I don't know I'm just buzz typing, heh.

[swansont]

Charge is not energy. Let's get that out of the way. Charge is a property of matter.

 

Electricity is a way of transporting energy using charge. You can also store energy that way, e.g. with a capacitor, because it takes energy (or releases it) to move charges around. Just like we can move objects around and store energy with gravity by putting water up high in a reservoir. Ignoring relativity for the moment, we wouldn't say that the mass is energy, we'd say we had stored energy by putting the mass where we did, higher up in a gravitational field.

[Resha Caner]

Sometimes analogies are helpful - at least they are for me. Here is a website that gives analogies between electrical, mechanical, and thermal systems.

 

http://www.eas.asu.edu/~holbert/analogy.html