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Unit 5: Energy (Part 2) Page 14
Activities, Experiments, Projects
Lesson 2: Kinetic Potential Energy
Note: This section is an abbreviated overview of the experiments online.
energy. When the car hit the floor
Experiment: Go Go GO!! it no longer had any potential
energy only kinetic.
This is a nit-picky experiment that
focuses on the energy transfer of If the car was 100% energy
rolling cars. You’ll be placing efficient, the car would keep going
objects and moving them about to forever. It would never have any
gather information about the energy transferred to useless
potential and kinetic energy. We’ll energy. Your cars didn’t go forever
also be taking data and recording did they? Nope, they stopped and
the results as well as doing a few some stopped before others. The
math calculations, so if math isn’t ones that went farther were more
your thing, feel free to skip it. energy efficient. Less of their
energy was transferred to useless
You’ll need to find a few toy cars energy than the cars that went less
(or anything that rolls like a skate), far.
a board, book or car track, and
measuring tape. Where did the energy go? To
heat energy, created by the friction
The setup is simple. Here’s what of the wheels, and to sound
you do: energy. Was energy lost? NOOOO,
it was only changed. If you could
1. Set up the track (board or book capture the heat energy and the
so that there’s a nice slant to the sound energy and add it to the the
floor). kinetic energy, the sum would be
equal to the original amount of
2. Put a car on the track. energy the car had when it was
sitting on top of the ramp.
3. Let the car go.
4. Mark or measure how far it
went. Experiment: Simple Pulleys
As you lifted the car onto the track Roller Coasters are a prime
you gave the car potential energy.
As the car went down the track and example of energy transfer. You
start at the top of a big hill at low
reached the floor the car lost speeds (high gravitational potential
potential energy and gained kinetic
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