Potential Energy

Potential energy is a component of the total energy of the system based on the position of the atoms.  Force is the negative derivative of the potential, with respect to position.

The equation for potential energy is known as the functional form of a force field.  Each force field utilizes a slightly different functional form.  This equation consists of both bonded (bonds, angles, dihedrals, and improper dihedrals) and nonbonded (Lennard-Jones and Coulombic) terms.