1) Explain how potential energy was demonstrated when you made your roller coaster.
When the ball was released from a certain height it rolled down the roller coaster because it had potential energy. The ball was at a certain height and it had mass, since the formula for potential energy is Mass x Gravity (9.8 m/s^2) x Height, some of the ball's potential energy is changed to kinetic energy because the ball was moving on the roller coaster.
2) Explain how kinetic energy was demonstrated when you made your roller coaster.
The ball started out having a large potential energy because it started from a certain height and when it rolled down the roller coaster it had less potential energy because the ball has less height. Since initial potential energy + kinetic energy is always equal to final potential energy + kinetic energy, some of the potential energy at beginning is converted to kinetic energy on the roller coaster.
3) Did using different mass balls (glass, wood, metal) change how the roller coaster worked? Explain why using the formulas for kinetic and gravitational potential energy.
Using different mass balls did affect how the roller coaster, the smaller mass ball did not do as well as the larger mass balls. In the formula of both kinetic and potential energy it involves mass. The formula for potential energy is Mass x Gravity x Height, since the height where the roller coaster starts is constant when we tested the different mass balls the only thin that could affect the potential energy of the balls are its mass. The ball that has less mass will have less potential energy causing to also have less kinetic energy as it goes down the roller coaster. Mechanical energy is just the sum of potential and kinetic energy, initial and final mechanical energy is always equal, since
4) How did this experiment help to improve your understanding of kinetic and potential energy?
It did help me understand more about Potential and Kinetic energy, because I could observe how potential energy can affect kinetic energy. Observing how the balls go down the roller coaster gave me an idea about the relation between kinetic and potential energy.
When the ball was released from a certain height it rolled down the roller coaster because it had potential energy. The ball was at a certain height and it had mass, since the formula for potential energy is Mass x Gravity (9.8 m/s^2) x Height, some of the ball's potential energy is changed to kinetic energy because the ball was moving on the roller coaster.
2) Explain how kinetic energy was demonstrated when you made your roller coaster.
The ball started out having a large potential energy because it started from a certain height and when it rolled down the roller coaster it had less potential energy because the ball has less height. Since initial potential energy + kinetic energy is always equal to final potential energy + kinetic energy, some of the potential energy at beginning is converted to kinetic energy on the roller coaster.
3) Did using different mass balls (glass, wood, metal) change how the roller coaster worked? Explain why using the formulas for kinetic and gravitational potential energy.
Using different mass balls did affect how the roller coaster, the smaller mass ball did not do as well as the larger mass balls. In the formula of both kinetic and potential energy it involves mass. The formula for potential energy is Mass x Gravity x Height, since the height where the roller coaster starts is constant when we tested the different mass balls the only thin that could affect the potential energy of the balls are its mass. The ball that has less mass will have less potential energy causing to also have less kinetic energy as it goes down the roller coaster. Mechanical energy is just the sum of potential and kinetic energy, initial and final mechanical energy is always equal, since
4) How did this experiment help to improve your understanding of kinetic and potential energy?
It did help me understand more about Potential and Kinetic energy, because I could observe how potential energy can affect kinetic energy. Observing how the balls go down the roller coaster gave me an idea about the relation between kinetic and potential energy.