In science I grew the most in understanding all of the types of energy and how they affect each other. I did this through activity 5.2 and the energy PHET simulation.

 

In activity 5.2 we placed a tennis ball on top of a basketball, dropped them together and compared how the height of the two balls changed with how they were dropped. Then, we compared their heights when they were dropped together to when they were dropped separate. We noticed that the tennis ball bounced higher and the basketball bounced lower when they were bounced together. This showed that energy can be transferred from one object to another.

 

In 5.2 we learned about how energy transforms and transfers. Energy transfers occur when two objects collide and Energy transformations are when one energy is changed into another type of energy. Also, you can see kinetic energy and gravitational energy. Kinetic energy is anything that is moving. To have more kinetic energy, you need to have either a larger mass or a faster speed. Gravitational energy is anything that is elevated. To have more gravitational energy you need to have either a higher elevation or a larger mass.

 

In the energy PHET simulation, a guy is on a skateboard going back and forth on a track. It tracks the kinetic energy, gravitational energy, and thermal energy. You can increase or decrease the amount of friction between him and the track to see how it affects the energy at each point. We saw how energy changes over time. You can see that when he goes down that his kinetic energy increases and his gravitational energy decreases, although they both slowly decrease in total amount as thermal energy increases the more he moves. He then slows to stop and when he is completely stopped (at the reference height) he has only thermal energy. This means the energy is transforming into other energy.

 

In the energy PHET simulation we learned about how energy transforms from one to another. Energy transformations occur when one energy type is changed into another energy type. You can also see in this, kinetic energy, gravitational energy, and thermal energy. Kinetic energy is when an object is moving. Gravitational energy is anything that is elevated. Thermal energy is the movement of atoms within an item.

 

In this reflection you saw how I grew in understanding energy types through the PHET simulation and activity 5.2.