The main question that I had teaching the law of conservation of energy was "where does the energy go?" If energy is not created or destroyed, why do things stop moving?
Of course we all know the answer is friction.
What is friction? I had my students rub their hands together and then asked them if they felt heat. That is friction.
Then I explained that energy is transformed from kinetic energy into thermal energy via friction. This is where I either get the glassy stare or the arguments.
This skate park would let the student see the effect of friction and watch the graphs kinetic energy was transformed into thermal energy. If I had a computer lab, I would have them play with this skate park application until they had a solid grasp on why perpetual machines don't exist.
-p
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