Marble Tracks Potential Energy

Science teacher bruce yeany uses this collection of physics marble tracks to introduce and reinforce his students ideas about perpetual and kinetic energy motion acceleration inertia and more.

Marble tracks potential energy.

Keeping track of energy. Kinetic energy is the energy of an object in motion. Demo a marble run. Its potential energy is converted to kinetic energy the energy of motion.

You can change how many are side by side and space them out to your liking. Students will rapidly grasp that the marble gains speed as it falls from its release point and loses it again as it climbs back. The tracks stringless pendulums random answer devices an activation energy analogy an identical track race a high road low road track race and galileo s inertia track are homemade demonstration tools from his almost four decades of teaching. Potential energy is stored because of an object s elevation or height off the ground.

This energy does not disappear however it is converted into other forms like heat and sound. This unit introduces potential energy and kinetic energy. This is called conservation of energy. Motors are like the chains on the first big hill of a rollercoaster adding potential energy to your scene.

Download files and build them with your 3d printer laser cutter or cnc. The marble also loses a small amount of energy due to friction or when it collides with the walls of the track. The amount of potential energy in an object depends on its height. When the coaster car starts going down the hill the potential energy is converted into kinetic energy or the.

Energy a roller coaster run initially without vertical loops is a good way to demonstrate the conversion between potential and kinetic energy. The total amount of energy in the system remains the same. As it rolls down the track this potential energy is converted into kinetic or movement energy. If the marble has enough kinetic energy when it is launched off the end of the track it will successfully jump over the cars.

They work on straight and curved tracks. Updated video on the high road low road track race physics demonstration that i posted previously. In this science activity kids will use recycled cardboard tubes to create their own marble runs to explore potential and kinetic energy. Students consider the energy required when a ball rolls down a hill and strikes a.

Thingiverse is a universe of things. When the marble is placed at the top of the track it has potential or stored energy. Potential energy is the energy that is stored in an object. Another example is a marble teetering at the top of a marble run.

When you release the marble gravity starts to pull it down the track. In this video i tried to explore or clarify several sugges.