Conservation and Transformation of Energy

Mechanical Energy Explorations with Energy Skate Park:

Skaters Movement Potential Energy Kinetic Energy Total Energy

Down the hill ↓ ↑ S

Up the hill ↑ ↓ S

5. What happens if you drop the skater onto the track from above the track? Why?

If you drop the skater from above the track the skater will skate and go out of the track because
the higher you put him, the more potential energy there is causing the kinetic energy to go up
too and making him fly off the track.

6. Add symbols ( ↓ ↑ S ) to complete the observation statements:

As an object moves down the track, the kinetic energy ↑INCREASE and the potential energy
↓ DECREASE . When the object moves up the track the kinetic energy ↓DECREASE and
the potential energy ↑INCREASE.

7. Look at your data table and focus on the Total energy column. Write a complete
sentence about the “total energy” of the object moving up and down the track.
Time to explore friction!

The total energy always stays the same, before he's dropped, while going up, and while going
down, it will always have the same total energy. This has to do with the conservation of energy.

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 1. At the bottom, click “Friction”
a) Click the box next to bar graph
b) Click the box next to pie chart
c) Move the slider to change the friction
Discuss the changes in the bar graph as the skater moves up and down on the track.

When more friction is applied, thermal energy increases, total energy stays the same, and both
kinetic and potential energy start decreasing. Once there is no more potential or kinetic energy
is when the skater stops skating.

2. Use the symbols to fill in the data table.

Skater’s Potential Kinetic energy Total energy Friction

Down hill ↓ Decreases ↑ Increases S ↑

↑ ↓ S ↑
Up the hill

Add arrows to complete the following observations. ( ↑ ↓ S )

- As an object moves down the track, the kinetic energy ↑ increase and the potential
energy ↓ decrease . The total energy stayed the same.

- After watching the bar graph while the object is moving, especially with “lots” of

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 friction, write a title for the last column. Use the symbols to fill in the last column.

-complete the observation statement:

As the skater moves with friction, the kinetic energy and potential energy both DECREASE,
the thermal energy INCREASES and the total energy STAYS THE SAME.
Write a possible explanation for this.
Both the potential and kinetic energy starts decreasing because of the amount of friction there is
on the track. Friction causes it to be harder to move on that surface which increases the thermal
energy because it's working harder to move up and down the track.

- Discuss what changed and what stayed the same when friction added to the skate
park .

What changed was both of the Kinetic energy and the Potential energy decrease when there is
more friction. Something else that changes is an increase in thermal energy. Before adding the
friction, there was no thermal energy but once it was added, it increased because it was being
converted from the kinetic energy. What stayed the same was the total energy.

- Which situation, with friction or without friction, is more similar to your everyday
experience on a skateboard or bicycle? Write at least 2 sentences to explain your
answer.

The situation that would be more similar to my everyday experience on a skateboard or bike
would be with friction. Every surface has some sort of friction because if it didn't, then we would
be able to even move forward or backwards. Whenever people ride bikes, if you are at a
skatepark, the ramps are smoother and easier to ride smoothly whereas if you are riding on a
gravely/uneven road it would be harder to ride on. The more friction the harder you have to
pedal or skate and when you stop you can feel the tires warmed up from all the kinetic energy
turning into thermal energy.

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 Finally, click “Playground” at the bottom:

Create a track with at least one loop. Drag segments to make loops.
Draw a diagram of your track here.

[PICTURE GOES HERE]

Slide friction to “None”.

Release your skater from below the top of the loop. Write a complete sentence explaining
what happens.

When I release my skater from below the top of the loop I made, the skater does not make it
around the loop. It only makes it as high as where I dropped him from. There is not enough total
energy to get him around the loop.

Release your skater from above the loop. Explain what happens, using the words Kinetic
Energy, Potential Energy, AND Total energy!

When I release the skater from above the loop, there is more kinetic and potential energy than
when he was released lower. Because it has more total energy when released from higher, he is
able to actually go all the way around the loop.

Now slide “Friction” to the right a little bit. What happens to the skater?

Once we add friction to our ramp, the skater starts to slow down. He is losing potential and
kinetic energy but is gaining thermal energy. It slows down until it stops going around the loop
and eventually comes to a complete stop all while total energy stays the same and thermal
energy increases almost all the way and there is a slight bit of potential energy left.

Based on what you just learned, how must roller coasters be designed so that they will
go through loops successfully? Use the words Potential Energy, Total Energy, and
Friction!

In order for a roller coaster to work and go through all the loops or ups and downs, it needs to
have enough kinetic energy to be able to push the cart all the way. To build that much total
energy, the roller coaster must have a really high drop. While going up the coaster, it builds up
potential energy, once at the peak and going down, that potential energy starts lowering while
kinetic energy builds up and that total energy is what gets the coaster moving and going around
the loops.

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