This document discusses the principle of minimum potential energy (MPE) and its application in finite element analysis of structures. MPE states that for conservative structural systems, the equilibrium state corresponds to the deformation that minimizes the total potential energy of the system. The document provides examples of applying MPE to simple spring-mass systems to derive equilibrium equations, and discusses how continuous systems can be approximated by discretizing them into lumped finite elements, allowing complex structures to be analyzed systematically using MPE.