Introduction To Our Experiment

The law of conservation of energy states that the total amount of energy in an isolated system remains constant. A consequence of this law is that energy cannot be created or destroyed. The only thing that can happen with energy in an isolated system is that it can change form which is to say for instance kinetic energy can become thermal energy or elastic energy can become kinetic energy. From the Einstein's theory of relativity (E = mc²), energy is associated with mass in, that’s mean the conservation of energy also implies the conservation of mass in isolated systems. This state means that the mass of a system cannot change, so long as energy is not permitted to enter or leave the system.

Figure: Ball Bearing Spring Launcher

Figure: Measuring Tape

The objective for this project is to prove the conservation of energy. Before this project will be made, there are a few assumption need to be made; the air resistant ignored, conversion of energy is ideal, the acceleration of gravity is constant and the spring is frictionless. A ball bearing will be launch by the Ball Bearing Spring Launcher at a certain height. The ball will travel some distance and fall back to ground due to gravity acceleration. The motion of the ball bearing will be resolve into horizontal component, x and vertical component, y. The distance travel by the ball will be measured by the measuring tape. Calculation will be done base on each component. The time taken by the ball to fall back to the ground will be recorded using a stopwatch. These results can be used to find the velocity of x component which will not be affected by acceleration of gravity. Then the initial projectile velocity can be determined. After that, the initial velocity is used to find the kinetic energy and the distance the spring has been compressed away from the equilibrium position is used to find the elastic potential energy of spring. Finally, the theory of conservation of energy between the elastic potential energy of spring and the kinetic energy of the ball bearing is proved.

Posted by Mohd Izha Bin Md Yusop