The Skate Park

Kinetic ↔ potential

An interactive lesson with 8 steps, about 7 minutes: you predict, drag and solve, with instant feedback on every answer. It runs in your browser and needs JavaScript.

What you’ll learn

• Without friction, $KE + PE$ stays constant.
• Falling from height $h$: $v = \sqrt{2gh}$, the same for any mass and any path shape.
• An object can only climb back to its starting height, never higher.

Steps

1. Drop in
2. How high?
3. Conservation of energy
4. Speed at the bottom
5. Speed trap
6. Three slides
7. The race
8. Pendulum