An activity where students demonstrate elastic potential energy and gravitational potential energy by looking at the travel height of a ping pong when dropped vs a ping pong dropped with a "dropper popper".

This activity utilizes hands on learning with the conservation of energy with the inclusion of elastic potential energy. Students use pogo sticks to experience the elastic potential energy and its conversion to gravitational potential...

This tutorial introduces the concept of electric potential. It relates this concept to the potential energy of a positive test charge at various locations within an electric field. Take the interactive quiz to test your understanding.

Find out how gravitational potential energy is converted to kinetic energy, then finally into low-grade thermal energy.

Lesson 2 moves into the Research and Revise step and focuses on the conservation of energy solely between gravitational potential energy and kinetic energy. Students start out with a virtual laboratory, and then move into the notes and...

This activity focuses on the conservation of energy solely between gravitational potential energy and kinetic energy. Students work with a virtual laboratory set at a skate park. They make predictions of graphs before they use the...

In Lesson 3, as part of the Research and Revise step, students investigate potential energy held within springs (elastic potential energy). Class begins with a video of either spring shoes or bungee jumping. Students then move on into...

Hang various mass weights on spring scales while you adjust the spring stiffness and damping in this online activity. Slow down the action, take it to another planet, or watch the amount of potential, thermal, and kinetic energy.

Energy can be described as being in different "stores". It cannot be created or destroyed but it can be transferred, dissipated or stored in different ways. There are seven main stores of energy: magnetic, internal (thermal), chemical,...

This site from Georgia State University Physics Department defines and explains the concept of gravitational potential energy. Uses many equations and graphics to illustrate the idea. Provides an online computational practice set with...

This site from Georgia State University Physics Department defines and explains the concept of gravitational potential energy. Uses many equations and graphics to illustrate the idea. Provides an online computational practice set with...

[Free Registration/Login may be required to access all resource tools.] Discusses ways in which energy can be transferred, what kinetic energy is and types of potential energy. Includes examples of energy conversions.

Combined with aspects of circular motion, students discover that Kepler's third law follows directly from the law of universal gravitation. This unit will expand upon the conservation of energy principle for problems beyond the confines...

This module is written for a first-year algebra-based physics class, though it could easily be modified for conceptual physics. It is intended to provide hands-on activities to teach the overarching concept of energy, as it relates to...

Explains different kinds of energy, covering kinetic, potential, gravitational, mechanical, sound, thermal, chemical, electrical, and radiant energy. Also looks at storage, transfer, and dissipation of energy. Includes a short...

Explore kinetic, potential, and thermal energy as you send a skateboarder along several pre-built tracks, then design your own. Charts and graphs show the distribution of the different forms of energy, illustrating how the total energy...

This activity utilizes hands-on learning with the conservation of energy and the interaction of friction. Students use a roller coaster track and collect position data. The students then calculate velocity, and energy data. After the...

This is a summary of the information in Chapter 7: Work, Energy, and Energy Resources for the AP Physics I course online.

This site is from the Physics Department at Georgia State University. The conservation of energy as a fundamental conservation law is presented and compared to other conservation laws (momentum and angular momentum). Links to further...

Step-by-step instructions, with photos, of how to prepare an egg for a 'bungee jump' using a plastic bag and elastics, and a yard stick to measure the distance it falls each time it is dropped. The activity investigates the Law of...

This site is from the Physics Department at Georgia State University. The reliance upon the law of conservation of energy as an approach to problem-solving is presented and encouraged. It is modeled through a problem involving a...

This activity is based on the common experiment of running a marble down a ramp to do work on a cup. Students will be able to see the relationship between mass and energy of the marble and the ramp height.

An interactive simulation that teaches about gravitational force, Newton's Third Law, and force pairs by varying properties affect the gravitational force exerted between two objects. This simulation can either be downloaded or played...

An interactive simulation that teaches about gravitational force, circular motion, and astronomy by manipulating the sun, earth, moon, and a space station to observe the effects of gravity and orbital paths. This simulation can either be...