This is part of a series of posts which gives a surface level explanation 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.