How Does a Projectile Object Demonstrate the Law of Conservation of Energy?
The purpose of the projectile lab is to test the validity of the law of conservation of energy. The application of this law to our everyday lives is a surprisingly complicated process. Conservation of energy states that energy cannot be created or destroyed, but that it can be transferred from one form to another. Consider the projectile lab from document A that this essay is based upon. In an ideal experiment, the projectile is isolated from everything except the gravitational field. In this case, the only force acting on the particle is gravity and there are only two forms of energy that are of interest: the energy of the particle due to its motion (defined as kinetic
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As a simple case, consider the simulation of document . In the frictionless case, the only force acting on the skater is gravity. Therefore, according to the conservation of energy, the sum of the kinetic and the potential energy remains constant. As the skater climbs the ramp, his height increases. According to document , as the skater’s potential energy is proportional to his height, the skater’s potential energy increases. However, the skater’s velocity also decreases as he climbs the ramp. Again, according to document , as the skater’s kinetic energy is proportional to his velocity squared, the skater’s kinetic energy decreases. The interplay between these two energies is such that their sum remains constant and the law of conservation of energy remains …show more content…
From the bar chart, we see that the potential energy in general agrees with the case above, i.e. it increases up to the particle’s maximum height and decreases from that point on. The kinetic energy, on the other hand, behave significantly differently than expected. Rather than decreasing form the beginning to the maximum height and then increasing, the kinetic energy appears to fluctuate in a somewhat random manner. This can be best understood by treating the experiment as a closed system, where energy (but not mass) can leave the system and enter the surroundings. As the projectile moves through the air, it collides into air particles, imparting some of its energy to these particles in the form of friction, heat and sound, thus losing energy in the process. We therefore would expect the sum of the potential energy and the kinetic energy to decrease over time as the projectile loses energy to its surroundings. However, from the data from document , this also does not seem to be the case. This discrepancy can be explained by including experimental uncertainty, where errors in our measurements can lead to unjustified conclusions. In order to reduce the sources of these errors, the experiment should be run multiple times in ideal conditions, averaging over the results and calculating the resulting averaged energies.
In summary, the law of conservation of energy does indeed hold true. In
The Conservation of Energy states that energy is always constant. If potential energy increases then kinetic energy decreases and vice versa.
First the energy of conservation. The setting of the trebuchet before firing is shown in Fig 1. A heavy counterweight of mass (M) (contained in a large bucket) on the end of the short arm of a sturdy beam was raised to some height while a smaller mass (m) (the projectile), was positioned on the end of the longer arm near or on the ground. In practice the projectile was usually placed in a leather sling attached to the end of the longer arm. However for simplicity, we shall ignore the sling and compensate for this omission by increasing the assumed length of the beam on the projectile’s side. The counterweight was then allowed to fall so that the longer arm swung upward, the sling following, and the projectile was ultimately thrown from its container at some point near the top of the arc. The far end of the sling was attached to the arm by a rope in such a way that the release occurred at a launching angle near the optimum value ( most likely by repeated trials) for the launch height. The launching position is shown in fig.2 where we have assumed that the projectile is released at the moment the entire beam is vertical. In the figures: (a)=height of the pivot, (b)= length of the short arm, (c)= length of the long arm, while (v) and (V) are the velocities of (m) and (M), respectively, at the moment of launching.
The Purpose of this lab is to use the impulse and momentum concepts to explain what happens when the eggs are dropped onto various objects.
If you watch the news you’ve probably heard all of the tension between us and North Korea with the nuclear arms. Well I have some knowledge to share with you. The first H bomb test and its predecessors, The components of the first H bomb and how it explodes. The science behind the H bomb is long and confusing, but I've simplified it enough to the point to make it understandable and interesting I hope.
There still exists the conversion of potential energy to kinetic energy as well as the conversion kinetic energy to potential energy. These particular conversions take place at the beginning of the process and the end. For instance, before Allyn lets go of the ball it had the potential energy to fall down. After she lets it go that potential energy is now kinetic energy. Since it's in motion now its lost the potential to get in motion but instead it's moving now giving it kinetic energy. And vice verse at the end of the
In this project Cassidy and I created a Rube Goldberg machine. A Rube Goldberg Machine is a complex system set up with a series of chain reactions used to do a simple tasks. The objective of our project was to feed a dog. We had the machine do a series of tasks to get a cup with food in it at the end of the machine to dump out the food into a dish. Our rube goldberg machine started with a series of dominoes. When we pushed the first domino it gave it kinetic energy. This domino will hit the next domino and the kinetic energy will transfer to the next domino. The last domino pulled a string from in front of a marble. The marble then rolled down a ramp and then hit a rubber band. The marble hitting the rubber band created potential energy by
Kinetic energy behaves a bit differently depending on the type of collision: elastic or inelastic.
A Catapult is a device that is used to launch an object. These devices are very ancient and have been used in many areas, mostly in Europe during the middle ages. Catapults were highly used weapons. The first Catapult was meant to replace a crossbow, by increasing the range and power. Diodorus Siculus was a Greek historian, he was the first to actually document a catapult in action. Catapults were used to launch missiles at walls and also over walls to create extreme damage to the population. They would also launch diseased bodies over walls to infect the population as well.
A Parabola is a symmetrical open plane curve formed by the intersection of a cone with a plane parallel to its side. The path of a projectile under the influence of gravity ideally follows a curve of this shape. This is u
The first law of thermodynamics is the conservation energy can be converted from one form to another but cannot be destroyed or created in an isolated system. An example is a potential energy that is not used and kinetic energy which is being used, for example, the water in a dam is potential energy, and when the water is released from the dam, it becomes kinetic energy.
deal of energy is required, most of which appeared as heat in the target. As a
The formula in fig. 1 is used to calculate kinetic energy (The energy an object has due to its motion) of an object. This is formula is applicable in many ways. For example, it can be altered to find the energy of unbelievably small units, such as molecules and atoms. This altered formula can be seen in fig. 2. Every object moving in space has kinetic energy (http://m.teachastronomy.com/astropedia/article/Potential-and-Kinetic-Energy). Kinetic energy is all around us, for example if you’re driving on the street and pass two cars of the same make and model, the car going faster will have more kinetic energy than the slower. Kinetic energy is seen al...
type of energy is lost or gained, and whether or not a factor that is
Kinetic energy is the energy possessed by a body due to its motion. Potential energy is the energy possessed by a body due to its position or state. Kinetic energy can be transferred from one object to another, in case of collisions. Potential energy cannot be transferred. Thus, the potential energy is stored in the object due to its position, whereas the kinetic energy is possessed by an object due to motion.
In this assessment of the projectile motion of an object, I found that it can be applied to many useful situations in our daily lives. There are many different equations and theorems to apply to an object in motion to either find the path of motion, the displacement, velocity, acceleration, and time of the object in the air.