HyperHomeschool

Main Goal: Apply mathematical concepts to explore the relationship between mass, speed, and kinetic energy. 

Introduction:

After viewing the BrainPOP movie on kinetic energy as well as completing a lab during our science class, we have discovered several things.

• Kinetic Energy is associated with objects in motion.
• Mass and speed can affect the amount of kinetic energy released.
• Energy can be transferred and stored, but never created or destroyed.
• Kinetic energy can be transferred fromone object to another when the objects collide.

Math Background:

• Order of Operations'
• Exponents
• Multiplication and Division
• Fractions

Mission

Which gives off more kinetic energy:  a cheetah or an elephant? 

• Take a guess!  Which animal do you think?
• Research the average mass of each animal and average speed. Record on your investigation sheet.
  
  • Cheetahs
  • Elephants and More Elephants
• Using the fomula to calculate kinetic energy, KE= 1/2(mass * velocity²), determine the kinetic energy released for each animal.  Record your findings on your investigation sheet.
• Now, assume that 2 cheetahs of the same mass are moving at different speeds.  Which cheetah releases more kinetic energy?

Conclusions

Was your initial guess correct?  What have you discovered through this investigation?

The amount of kinetic energy an object has depends on its mass and speed.  A fast moving object with a lot of mass wil have a lot of kinetic energy.  If two objects have the same mass, the one moving faster will have more kinetic energy.