Demo: Conservative Forces and Potential Energy



Demo: Conservative Forces and Potential Energy

Rebecca Morales/Kenneth Harvey/Bruce Dillon

7/03/02

Equipment:

• Mass

• Inertia Pulleys

• String

• Mounting bracket

• Fan mounted on bearings

• Pendulum with radius = r

• Track with radius = r

[pic]

Procedure:

Set up demonstration of lifting a weight from a point determined to be zero. Drop weight and cool yourself off.

Discussion:

This demonstrates the concept of the conservation of energy. Energy may be in the form of Kinetic or Potential Energy. Work is the application of a force over a given distance and that work can be stored in the form of Potential Energy. The fan is a visual representation of the conversion of energy for students to see useful work.

As an additional thought the second diagram shows that not all systems are conservative, other forces come into play such as friction.

Questions:

• Is there energy in a system that elevates a mass from one point to another? Explain how this energy can be determined.

• Can this energy be transferred to another form? What examples can you think of that would demonstrate the transfer of potential energy to some other form of energy?

................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download