Conservation of Energy Lab Report

Gladys Sama
Physics Lab Section 04
Ty-Keah Dewey
TreSean Levias
2 October, 2019
Purpose: The purpose of this lab is to observe the conservation of energy, with the absence of non-

conservative forces, of a moving object by exploring the relationship between kinetic, potential, and

total energy.

Theory: The main idea of this lab is conservation, specifically conservation of energy. Conservation
is when the total amount of the starting material is equal to the ending amount. In other words,
whatever quantity you start with should not change in amount. An example of conservation would be if
my friend and I had marbles of different colors. I had 10 marbles but I did not like the colors I had so I
exchanged some of mines with my friends. I still end up with 10 marbles just different colors, so my
amount of marbles is conserved. When talking about the conservation of energy, there are two forces
that produce energy. A force is just an interaction between an object and something else. An example of
a force would be if I pushed against a wall. There would be an interaction because I am exerting force
against the wall, but the wall is also exerting force back towards me. Another example would be if I
was playing tug-of-war with someone. I would be exerting force to try and that person into the mud
while they would also be exerting force trying to pull me into the mud. A conservative force is an
interaction where the total energy is conserved while a non-conservative force reduces the total amount
of energy available. The total energy is just all the energies add together which can include kinetic
energy and potential energy which can be represented by the equation
E= Ke+GPE=(1 /2) mv 2 +mgh Kinetic energy is the energy of motion and it is measured with the
equation 1/2 mv 2 where m is mass in kg and v is velocity in meters/sec. Potential energy is the
energy of position of an object in relation to another object and it is measured with the equation
mgh where m is mass in kg, g is the gravitational constant, and h is height.

Apparatus and Setup:

1. Computer 2. Logger pro software 3. Motion Detector

4. Table 5. Clamps 6. Basketball

4. Round Pole 8. LabPro unit

5. Gray cable

6. Pointed pole
 7. USB Unit

Figure 1. Image of the ball dropping away from the motion detector.

Process:

1) We measured the basketball to get its weight.

2) We then dropped the basketball under the motion detector in order to get the plots of the ball’s

total, kinetic, and potential energy.

3) We had to drop the basketball a few times to get good plots.

4) Once we got the plots, we drew them on graph paper.

 KE vs. PE vs. Total Energy of bouncing Basketball
Kinetic Energy Potential Energy Total Energy
6.67

5.34

4
Energy (J)
2.67

1.33

0
0.00 0.20 0.40 0.60 0.80 1.00 1.20 1.40 1.60
Time (s)

Figure 2. Graph of all three energies

Data and Calculations:

Largest Value of total energy from plot 9.759

Smallest Value of total energy from plot 4.680

Percent Difference Between largest and smallest 70.4%
value of total energy
Average acceleration while the ball is in midair 9.611 m/s2
Expected Value 9.80 m/s2
Percent Error 1.97%
Figure 3. Data set of all numerical data from the experiment.

((∣Largest value−Smallest value∣)/(( Largest value+Smallest value)/2))× 100= Percent Difference

Ex. ((|9.759-4.680|)/((9.759+4.680)/2))×100 = 70.4%

((∣average acceleration−expected value∣)/ average acceleration)×100= percent error

Ex. ((|9.611-9.80|)/9.611)×100 = 1.97%

Conclusion: The data and results of this lab support the purpose of this lab. Once we were able to get

the plots of the kinetic, potential, and total energy, we were able to see the relationship between them.
With the graph, we could indicate what happens when the potential energy was increasing (the ball was

rising) and vice versa. We were also able to indicate whether the ball was rising or falling when the

kinetic energy was increasing (the ball was falling). With these observations, we were able to come up

with a relationship between kinetic and potential energy. When potential energy is increasing, the

kinetic energy is decreasing and vice versa, so kinetic and potential energy are inversely proportional.

During consecutive bounces, we were able to indicate whether total energy was increasing, decreasing,

or staying constant. The total energy was mostly staying constant between consecutive bounces. Since

our data showed that the total energy was constant, the energy was conserved. Now once you add a

non-conservative force, which is the friction when the ball bounces and hits the floor, the total energy

decreases and is no longer conserved. We were able to find the average acceleration by using the

statistics tool on Logger pro on our class computer.