Today as i was walking into the a room i knocked a book off the ledge onto the landing. As i watched this i realized that i was watching physics in action. Before i hit the book it had three types of potential energy. It had a zero potential energy with the ledge, a potential energy with the second floor and a potential energy with the landing. When i hit the book i transferred some kinetic energy of mine into kinetic energy for the book. As the book fell it transferred its potential energy into kinetic energy and the moment right before it hit the landing it transferred completely all of its potential energy into kinetic energy. When it hit the ground all the kinetic energy was turned back into potential energy where it lay until i pic
ked it up and put it back in the ledge.
1 comment:
That is pretty interesting Alex. I was thinking, if you threw that object upward, it would gain potential and kinetic energy (maybe), but you would need to use energy to get it up high.
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