Energy Forms and Changes - Student Handout

The simulation you will be working with today is a type of

model. It simulates the relationship between energy types
and demonstrates how heat is transferred between
substances and how energy is converted from one form to
another form in a system.

Begin the by going to this website :

http://phet.colorado.edu/en/simulation/energy-forms-
and-changes

Click on the Run Now button to run the simulation if

your teacher has not already downloaded the
simulation.

When the simulation has downloaded, make sure that

the Intro tab on the upper left of the screen is
selected (see screenshot image at below).

You have 3 materials

to work with, two
solids iron and brick
and a liquid, water.
You can click and
drag a thermometer
to each of these
materials. To see
how the energy flows
click on the white
box in the upper right
to the left of the
words Energy
Symbols. You can
Image:EnergyFormsandChangesPhETInteractiveSimulations,UniversityofColorado
also move three http://phet.colorado.edu/en/simulation/energyformsandchanges
Licensedattributionnoncommercial,nonderivative.

Created by The North Carolina School of Science and Math.

Copyright 2012. North Carolina Department of Public Instruction. 1
materials so that they are over the heat source and watch
what happens.

Click and drag the brick, the water and the iron block
over the heat sources and turn on the heat one at a
time until the maximum temperature is reached and
then stop activating the heat.
What happens to the temperature shown on the
thermometer? How are the responses of the iron, brick
and the water similar or different? Do they take the
same amount of time to reach maximum temperature?
Is the maximum temperature the same for all of them?
Why or why not?

Material Temperature Energy Movement

Iron It takes a short Energy moves from the heat
time to reach the source to the iron (thermal
max energy) at about the same
temperature. rate as the other two items.

Brick Shortest amount of Energy moves from the heat

time to reach the source to the brick (thermal
maximum energy) at about the same
temperature. rate as the other two items.
Water Slowly reaches the Energy moves from the heat
maximum source to the water (thermal
temperature. energy) at about the same
rate as the other two items.

What does this simulation show you about heat and energy?

It shows that the smaller the amount of energy that is

originally in the object, the faster it takes to reach
the maximum temperature.

Created by The North Carolina School of Science and Math.

Copyright 2012. North Carolina Department of Public Instruction. 2
 Click the Reset All button and then click and drag the
brick over the heat and heat it to the maximum. Be
sure a thermometer is attached to both. When the
brick has reached its maximum heat click and drag it
into the beaker of water.

What happened to the temperature of the brick and the

temperature of the water?
The temperature of the brick increased more rapidly
than the temperature of the water.

How did the energy move?

Moved from the heat source to the iron, brick, or
water as thermal energy.

Repeat the same experiment but this time heat the iron and
place it in the water.

Record your observations:

The temperature rapidly decreases back to

equilibrium and the thermal energy goes from the
iron to the water.

Repeat the same experiment but this time heat the water
and place the cool iron in the water.

Record your observations:

This time, energy moves from the hot water into the
cool iron.

Created by The North Carolina School of Science and Math.

Copyright 2012. North Carolina Department of Public Instruction. 3
Repeat the same experiment but this time heat the water
and place the cool brick in the water.

Record your observations:

The energy moves from the hot water to the cool
brick, but faster than it did with the cool iron.

What does this simulation show you about heat and energy?
This simulation displayed that heat and energy are
closely linked, and that energy is transferred from
hotter objects to cooler objects. Also, the rate of
temperature increase is dependent on the amount of
energy stored in an object

Created by The North Carolina School of Science and Math.

Copyright 2012. North Carolina Department of Public Instruction. 4