Well, the correct question is “What is energy”. And the answer is that energy is some number that we can compute for any physical system and it doesn’t change no matter what as long as the system is reasonably isolated from its surroundings. Kinetic energy is just a portion of this quantity we can compute for something that is moving.
It’s not very intuitive honestly. The best explanation for what energy is I ever read is this one from Feynman:
Well, the correct question is “What is energy”. And the answer is that energy is some number that we can compute for any physical system and it doesn’t change no matter what as long as the system is reasonably isolated from its surroundings. Kinetic energy is just a portion of this quantity we can compute for something that is moving.
It’s not very intuitive honestly. The best explanation for what energy is I ever read is this one from Feynman:
https://www.feynmanlectures.caltech.edu/I_04.html