Answers to Potential Energy Exercises

Let’s see how you did! If you didn’t get a few of these, don’t let it stress you out – it just means you need to play with more experiments in this area. We’re all works in progress, and we have our entire lifetime to puzzle together the mysteries of the universe!

Here’s printer-friendly versions of the exercises and answers for you to print out: Simply click here for K-8 and here for K-12.

Answers:
[am4show have=’p8;p9;p15;p42;’ guest_error=’Guest error message’ user_error=’User error message’ ]
1. Potential energy is the energy that something has that can be released.

2. Gravitational potential energy is the energy something has due to gravity. Gravitational Potential Energy = mgh

3. Potential energy is greatest when a heavy object is up high, like a bowling ball falling from an airplane.

4. Potential energy is lowest at the surface of the Earth. The object is as low as it can get.

5. Potential energy decreases as an object falls to the Earth.

6. Work is defined as moving an object over a distance against a force. Work = force x distance

7. A Newton is a unit of force. How much force it takes to push or pull something. It takes about one Newton of force to lift an apple.

8. A Joule is a unit of energy. It takes one Joule to exert one Newton of force over a distance of one meter.

[/am4show]