Kinetic Energy, Mass & Speed
Aligned to MS-PS3-1 — Next Generation Science Standards.
What this lesson teaches
Kinetic energy is the energy of motion. It increases as mass increases, and it increases even faster with speed, because doubling the speed quadruples the energy.
Worked example
A car moving at 40 mph carries four times the kinetic energy it had at 20 mph, which is why stopping distance grows so quickly — a graph of energy versus speed curves steeply upward.
Practice questions
- Construct a graph of kinetic energy versus speed from a given data table.
- Compare two graphs and describe how doubling the mass changes the kinetic energy.
- Explain why a small, fast bullet can carry more kinetic energy than a slow, heavy ball.
Watch the lesson
Every lesson comes with a video taught in English and Spanish — the same video the QR code in the printed workbook opens.
▶ Watch this lessonEn español
Energía Cinética, Masa y Rapidez
La energía cinética es la energía del movimiento. Aumenta cuando aumenta la masa, y aumenta aún más rápido con la rapidez, porque duplicar la rapidez cuadruplica la energía.
Ejemplo: Un auto que va a 40 mph lleva cuatro veces la energía cinética que tenía a 20 mph, por eso la distancia de frenado crece tan rápido — una gráfica de energía contra rapidez sube en una curva empinada.
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