Imagine you were able to throw a ball in a frictionless environment
such as outer space. Once you let go of the ball, it will travel forever
in a straight line, and at a constant speed. (At least until it bumps into
something.)
A car accelerates down the road. The reaction to the tires pushing
on the road is the road pushing on the tires.
Gravity affet everything and it touches nothing.
Hope this helps!
Formula to find gravitational potential energy:
mgh
m: mass
g: gravitational acceleration
h: height (relative to reference level)
so the P.E. at 1.0.m is (5x9.8x1)= 49J
P.E. at 1.5m is (5x9.8x1.5) =73.5J
P.E. at 2.0m is (5x9.8x2)=98J