• Conservative Forces are reversible forces, meaning that the work done by a conservative force is recoverable, i.e. you can get out any work you put in or vise versa.
  
  
• When you apply an external agent to change the state of a system that is also acted upon by a conservative force then the system can be restored to its initial state without using any other external agent. Lifting a rock is one example.
  
  
• Each type of Conservative Force has an associated with it an Potential Energy. See table below.
  
  
• The Potential Energy is generally the equation for the work expressed in terms of the symbolic solution of the formula used to find the work. For example, W_gravity = PE_gravity = m g h
  
  
• The work done by a conservative force, W_cf , can be transformed into a change in potential energy. We move the conservativeWork term from one side of the work energy theorem to the other and associate it with the kinetic energy,

Examples:	Conservative Forces	Potential Energy	Work
Gravity (Near Earth's Surface)	F = m g	PE = m g h	DPE = m g (h2 - h1)
Gravity (Any Distance)
Spring (Hooke's Law)	F = –k s
Pressure	F = P A	PE = P V	DPE = P (V2 - V1)
Electrical

• Conservative Forces are path independent, in that the work done by the force to move an object between any two points is independent of the path taken.

* The work done by a Nonconservative Force is not recoverable or expressible symbolically as a potential energy term. The work done by a nonconservitive force is usually dissipated as heat energy.