Elastic Potential Energy

Lab Brief #8

🎯 Your mission

Predict it first. Then prove yourself right (or wrong).

⚡ The twist

Energy never disappears — it just hides somewhere else.

What you'll learn

A stretched or compressed spring stores elastic potential energy equal to ½kx² below its elastic limit. Because extension is squared, stretching a bow twice as far stores four times the energy — which is why draw length matters so much in archery.

Key words

elastic potential energy
Energy stored in a stretched or compressed elastic object, ½kx².
extension
The increase in length of a spring beyond its natural length.

Make a hypothesis first

Before you start: which will move faster, and why?

Say your guess out loud — then find out if you were right.

Get ready

🧰 What you need

spring
slotted masses
clamp stand
metre rule
graph paper

Get ready

⚠️ Safety first

Wear eye protection — an overstretched spring can snap back.
Weight the stand base and keep feet from under the load.

Step 1 of 4 · Read

Think about what you just learned: say what "elastic potential energy" and "extension" mean in your own words before you start.

Step 2 of 4 · Do

Load a spring in steps and record extension. Plot force against extension and find the stored energy as the area under the line for three different extensions. Check that doubling extension quadruples the area.

Step 3 of 4 · Observe

Record what actually happened, including anything that did not match what you expected.

Step 4 of 4 · Record

Write a conclusion that answers the question this lesson opened with, and state your uncertainty.

Question 1 of 2

Doubling a spring's extension changes the stored energy by a factor of:

How sure are you?😐 maybe

Question 2 of 2

Elastic potential energy is found from a force-extension graph as the:

How sure are you?😐 maybe

Mind = blown

⚡ Static electricity is the same physics as lightning, just smaller.

Nice work!

You got 0 of 2 right.

Next: Specific Heat Capacity All lessons

🎯

Next Smart Experiment

We'll pick an experiment that matches exactly how you're thinking right now.

✨ More to explore

🌍 Where you see this in real life: This is why airplanes can fly and why rockets reach space.

🏆 Stretch challenge (try it this week): This week, find one thing in your house that turns one kind of energy into another.

👨‍👩‍👧 For the dinner table: “Show me something at home that uses this kind of energy.”

⚡Share card

Share this experiment

Send it to a parent who's looking for a 10-minute kitchen science win.

Elastic Potential Energy

Next Smart Experiment

Share this experiment

Elastic Potential Energy

Done with science? Try something else

Your Cart (0)