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PhET Energy Skate Park: Lab Questions
During class yesterday, you had the opportunity to familiarize yourself with a Phet
Interactive Science Simulation. Today, you will revisit that lab simulation and
answer questions based on the simulation. There are two simulations you will
need to access to answer the questions. Each of the questions for today’s lab
were reviewed yesterday when we explored this website as a group. Complete
sentence responses to each question are worth 2 points.
In your search bar on your computer, type in PhET
At the website, hover over simulations, then click physics near the top right of
the screen. Scroll through the list until you get to Energy Skate Park: Basics.
Click Energy Skate Park: Basics and then click the right arrow to start the
simulation.
Click the intro Box on the left side of the three possible options.
Using your left mouse button, move the skateboarder to the top of either side of
the skate ramp. Release the mouse button.
Question 1: As the skater goes back and forth from one side of the ramp to the
other, how do Newton’s Laws of Force explain the skateboarder’s movement?
ANSWER 1:
Question 2: Does friction seem to have any effect on the skateboarder’s
movement, and how do you know?
ANSWER 2:
Check all of the boxes at the top right corner of the simulation including: Pie
Chart, Bar Graph, Grid, and Speed.
Spend a few minutes to make sure you understand how potential energy, kinetic
energy, and speed are affected during the simulation. You can pause the
simulation if you need to.
Question 3: What happens to the potential energy in the simulation when the
kinetic energy is at its highest?
ANSWER 3:
Question 4: What happens to the Kinetic energy in the simulation when the
Potential energy is at its highest?
ANSWER 4:
Question 5: Why doesn’t total energy ever change during any point of the
simulation (Hint: it has to do with the relationship between the potential energy
and kinetic energy)?
ANSWER 5:
At the bottom center of the screen, click the friction button and place the
skateboarder back at the top of either side of the ramp.
Friction creates heat or thermal energy.
Question 6: As the skateboarder goes back and forth on the ramp, how is thermal
energy affected?
ANSWER 6:
Question 7: At any point during the simulation, does the total energy ever
decrease? How does the Law of Conservation of Energy explain this?
ANSWER 7:
Question 8: Why does the skateboarder’s kinetic energy decrease each time she
goes back and forth on the ramp?
ANSWER 8: