VelocityLab

Energy Transfer Experiment: Gravitational Potential Energy to Kinetic Energy

Does a falling object have potential energy or kinetic energy or both? In other potential energy experiments, we demonstrated the Law of Conservation of Energy: energy can neither be created nor destroyed, but instead, energy transfers from one form to another. In this investigation, we will take a look at the role of gravity in energy transfer.

Exploration

What is velocity? Velocity is often defined as speed with direction and speed is often defined as how fast or slow an object is traveling. But what exactly does being fast or slow mean? How can we represent an object’s velocity with an equation, graph, or other model? What is acceleration?