Lab Handout

 

 

1. Title:  Potential and Kinetic Energy
2. Purpose:  To find the Kinetic Energy of the marble once it is rolled down the ramp into the carton.
3. Background:  Potential Energy is when an object is at rest.  It turns into Kinetic Energy when the object is put in motion.  Kinetic energy is measured by ½ mv^2.
4. Setup:  We are going to use 4 different size marbles, a wooden ramp, and orange juice carton, and a ruler for this exercise.

Procedure:  The first step is to roll the different size marbles from the top of the ramp (60 cm) and measure the distance each marble makes the juice carton move.  Then we do the same thing for each marble except at a 40 cm distance not 60 cm.  Lastly, we repeat the process at the 20 cm mark of the ramp and conclude our findings.  This allows us to make a graph seeing how kinetic energy relates to our findings.

1. Data/Chart

Ramp Height/Speed	60 cm/.7 sec	40cm/.6 sec	20 cm/.5 sec
Small Marble
Big Marble
Large Marble
Extra Large Marble

 

 

 

Analysis:

a.  Find Kinetic Energy (1/2 mv^2)

b.  How does this experiment relate to energy?

c.  Make a graph showing the difference between each height/distance each marble traveled.

d.  How does sustainability relate to our environment today?