Potential Energy Activity

According to the conservation law, the potential energy = total energy - kinetic energy.

Some people have difficulty with an approximate sketch so in this activity we will assign some arbitrary values to the kinetic energy so you can use the above formula to calculate the potential energy at 5 or more points along the track.

Example: The following values are assigned to the previously drawn kinetic energy diagram.

Complete the following table:

Distance (cm)	Kinetic Energy (J)	Total Energy (J)	Potential Energy (J)
20
30
40
50
60

Use these values to sketch a graph of the potential energy with distance.

Describe the graph you sketched and answer the following questions below:

• What does it mean for the potential energy to have a negative value (in the context of the toy car)?
• Can you imagine a situation with the toy car where the potential energy would be positive?