You can increase the potential energy of an object by doing work on it so that its position or configuration changes in a way that stores more energy.

1. Gravitational potential energy (height)

For everyday situations near Earth, potential energy is often gravitational. You increase it by:

  • Lifting the object higher above the ground (for example, picking a book up onto a shelf).
  • Using a machine (like an elevator or crane) to raise it to a greater height.

In physics, gravitational potential energy is given by PE=mghPE=mghPE=mgh, where mmm is mass, ggg is gravity, and hhh is height, so increasing mmm or hhh increases the stored energy.

2. Elastic potential energy (stretching or compressing)

You can also increase potential energy by changing an object’s shape when it behaves like a spring:

  • Stretching a spring or rubber band further.
  • Compressing a spring more (like pushing down a spring in a toy or a shock absorber).

In these cases, more stretch or compression means more elastic potential energy stored in the material.

3. Other forms (conceptually)

More generally, potential energy increases whenever you:

  • Move objects against a force (lifting against gravity, pulling like charges together, separating opposite charges).
  • Change a system’s configuration so it “wants” to move back (bent bow, drawn catapult arm, compressed gas in a cylinder).

In simple terms: if you have to work against a force to move or deform something, that work is being stored as potential energy in the object or system.

TL;DR: Raise it higher, make it heavier (in the same field), or stretch/compress it more—each of these increases the object’s potential energy.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.