Laboratory 6: Kinetic and Potential Energy

Lab 6: Potential & Kinetic Energy

Refer to the Beyond Labz application to find the lab bench and the Beyond Labz landing. Follow the instructions on the Beyond Labz worksheet specific to the lab title in order to complete this assignment.

Download the Beyond Labz worksheet for this lab here:

Potential and Kinetic Energy Download Potential and Kinetic Energy

There are a total of eight graded responses or activities in this lab consisting of: 1 pre-lab questions; 3 tables; and 4 questions. Each activity is worth 5 points each. For a total of 40 points for this lab.

Purpose

To study the conversion of potential energy to kinetic energy.

Intuition
Have you ever dropped a book or a dish and heard a loud sound when it hit the floor? What caused
that? An energy conversion! Your object started with all potential energy, which converted to kinetic
energy as it fell and then when it hit the ground and slowed down, all of that energy was converted to
thermal energy of the molecules in the object and sound. Energy conversions happen all the time!

Definitions

Kinetic energy, potential energy

Context & Theory
The conversion of energy between potential energy and kinetic energy is a process that is observed
throughout our daily lives. Any time an object falls from any height and speeds up as it falls to the ground, we are observing a transformation of energy.
In this activity you will be observing the connection between the height of an object on a ramp, or the
potential energy of an object, and the speed of the object after it has slid to the bottom of the ramp and all the energy has been converted to kinetic energy. Because the ramp is frictionless, all gravitational potential energy is converted to kinetic energy and not lost to friction or thermal energy. All of the mechanical energy in the beginning was stored in gravitational energy and since the velocity at the beginning was zero, the kinetic energy at the beginning was zero also.