# Power vs Energy - In Short

#in short
#energy

This is part of a series of posts which gives a [surface level explanation](https://www.seangoedecke.com/shallow-technical-knowledge/)
of a topic.

Power and energy are commonly used interchangeably, but they are very different.

Energy is a measure of how much effort is required to make something happen; it's the 'fuel'. For example, it takes a
specific amount of energy to lift a weight a set distance, it doesn't matter how quickly, or how you do it, it will
require the same amount of energy.

Power is a measure of how quickly energy is consumed. It's a rate.

To use the water analogy, energy is the volume of water in a bucket and power is how quickly the water leaves the bucket.