what is conservative force

A conservative force is a force in physics that has the property that the total work done in moving a particle between two points is independent of the path taken. In other words, the work done by a conservative force on an object only depends on the initial and final positions of the object, and not on the path taken. Examples of conservative forces include gravitational force, force in an elastic spring, electrostatic force between two electric charges, and magnetic force between two magnetic poles. A conservative force is also characterized by the fact that the work done by the force is reversible, and the total work done by a conservative force is zero when the path is a closed loop. This property allows for the definition of stored energy, or potential energy, only for conservative forces