WHAT REALLY HAPPENED?”
A toy car rolls down a ramp and hits a stationary car. The stationary car moves.
What was transferred?
Energy was transferred from the moving car to the stationary car.
In the ramp investigation, raising the ramp increased the distance the car pushed the stationary car.
Why?
A higher ramp gives the car more potential energy → more kinetic energy → more transfer.
Two balls hit and bounce apart.
What kind of collision is this?
elastic collisions
When objects collide, energy cannot be destroyed. What law is this?
The law of conservation of energy.
Seatbelts help reduce injury by spreading out the energy from a collision.
This means they reduce what?
The force on the passenger.
You see two cars collide. You hear a loud BANG.
Which form of energy proves that not all the energy stayed as motion?
Sound energy (some energy transformed into sound).
Your three trials show different distances, even though you used the same ramp height. What is one scientific reason?
Variations in friction, push amount, or imperfections in the ramp.
A car crashes into a soft barrier and stays stuck in it.
What kind of collision?
inelastic collisions
What two forms of energy can kinetic energy turn into during a collision?
sound and heat
Why do safer cars have soft materials inside instead of hard materials?
Soft materials absorb energy (turn it into heat/sound) instead of transferring it to a person.
During the Newton’s Cradle demo, the balls eventually stop even though no one touched them.
What happened to their energy?
It transformed into heat and sound.
If the moving car goes faster, what happens to the energy transferred in a collision
More energy is transferred.
Which type of collision loses more energy to heat and sound?
inelastic
During the materials test (foam, carpet, tile), which surface absorbed the most energy from a collision?
The surface where the stationary car moved the least (because energy was absorbed instead of transferred
Which design is safer?
A) A car that stays stiff in a crash
B) A car that crumples
Explain scientifically.
B — crumpling absorbs energy, reducing the energy transferred to passengers.
A roller coaster car goes down a hill and speeds up. Explain using the words kinetic and potential.
Potential energy changed into kinetic energy.
Which change affects the collision outcome more:
– Making the car heavier
– Or raising the ramp slightly?
Explain logically.
Making the car heavier increases momentum significantly, usually causing greater energy transfer.
Why do Newton’s cradle balls bounce back and forth (elastic), but eventually stop (inelastic behavior)?
The collisions are mostly elastic, but a little energy is lost to heat/sound each time.
Two collisions make the same amount of sound. One makes more heat. Which collision absorbed more energy?
The one that produced more heat
You are designing a driverless car.
Name one feature that reduces energy transfer and explain why using evidence from your ramp or material investigations.
A foam bumper—because in our materials test foam absorbed more energy and reduced motion of the target ca
A heavy truck hits a small car, both moving. Why does the small car change motion more dramatically? (Use the idea of momentum.)
The truck has more momentum (because it has more mass), so it transfers more energy to the small car.
A student insists: “The stationary car moved far because the ramp was tall.”
What is a more scientific explanation?
The tall ramp increased the car’s potential energy, which became more kinetic energy, which transferred to the other car.
Why do crumple zones in cars use inelastic collisions ON PURPOSE
Because inelastic collisions absorb energy by changing shape, reducing energy transferred to passengers.
Your target car moves a small distance but the crash is very loud.
Explain what happened to the energy.
Most of the energy transformed into sound, not motion—so the car didn’t move far.
What is the job of a biomechanical engineer?
Designing safety features that reduce energy transfer to passengers in collisions