Energy Conservation - Lab Report Example

The output graph 2 for kinetic energy and potential energy vs time is attached herein, for oscillating mass on a spring. The graph is in such way that the curve for potential energy and kinetic energy intersect each other at a particular point, which is consistent. The point at which the two are the same for all the data is 0.5, which is the arbitrary reference level used to measure the y coordinate. Further, it is also worth noting from the graph that at the point where kinetic energy is maximum, the potential energy is found to be at its minimum.

There are few uncertainties, as shown by the number of outliers, leading to the conclusion that the experiment was accurate. Part 1 shows that there is conservation of energy in swinging pendulum. This is confirmed by the graph which indicates that at the point when potential energy is highest, the kinetic energy becomes zero. This is an indication that at this point, for the swinging pendulum, all the kinetic energy is converted to potential energy. At the lowest point of the swing, the potential energy is zero while the kinetic energy is at its highest (Teodorescu 11).

This also applies to part 2, indicating that there is energy conservation in an oscillating mass on a spring. When the spring is fully stretched, the change in potential energy becomes highest because of increase in length while the kinetic energy remains at zero. In which case, when the y is increased, the kinetic energy reduces to zero while the potential energy rise to maximum. To confirm energy conservation, computing mechanical energy for these systems at various points indicated that the answer remained constant for the various data.

Further, for the shot basketball, in part 3, the experiment was successful in confirming the energy conservation witnessed by a basketball. The conservation was confirmed when the ball was dropped from a certain height and bounced back to that similar height. However,