Thrilling Experiments: Potential and Kinetic Energy

Name
Heads Up!
Follow the steps to experiment with potential and kinetic energy.
1. Gather materials -A metal weight or rock with a mass of roughly 5 kilograms. (10
pounds), a soda bottle filled with water, a wooden plank about 2 meters long. (2” x 4”
– or smaller), 2 tennis balls – one cut in half, wood screw and washer to fix half tennis
ball onto plank at one end.
2. Rest the plank on the soda bottle. The water inside the bottle prevents it from
collapsing.
3. Place the tennis ball on the half tennis ball at one end of the plank.
4. Drop the weight onto the other end of the plank to launch the tennis ball upwards.
5. Vary the distance between the fulcrum of the lever (the soda bottle) and one end of
the plank to increase or decrease the amount of leverage applied to the tennis ball
when launched.
6. Vary the height from which the weight is dropped onto the other end of the plank.
7. Determine the best position for the fulcrum to provide maximum altitude for the
tennis ball.
8. Describe how the gravitational potential energy of the weight is converted to kinetic
energy as it falls and how the kinetic energy of the tennis ball is converted to gravit-
ational potential energy as it travels upwards – and back to kinetic energy as it falls.
9. Theoretically, the tennis ball should gain the most kinetic energy when it is launched
as far as possible from the fulcrum when the weight is dropped onto the other end of
the plank. How does the mass of the plank affect the best position for the fulcrum?
© Sunburst Visual Media, a division of Global Video, LLC Thrilling Experiments: Potential and Kinetic Energy
After Viewing
Activity 2
19