Once again friction causes difficulty in seeing what happens when no energy leaves the car. To have a friction-free experience, use the Potential Energy Diagram Explorer program.
Set up a situation that creates the potential energy diagram in below. Give the car the approximate total energy shown.
Describe the car's motion with:
Now set the friction to zero and set the car's energy to 3J. Calculate the binding energy. Then give the car that much energy. What happens?
The attractive and repulsive diagrams that you have created were diagrams of simple shapes - representing an object being first accelerated and later decelerated (or vise versa). However, the motion of an object is often more complex. Later we will use potential energy diagrams of complicated shapes and their application. To analyze them, you will use the experience and understanding built up in the process of analyzing simple energy diagrams.