Energy Forms and Changes - Student Handout

Cindy Wang!

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 also
move three materials so
that they are over the
Image: “Energy Forms and Changes” PhET Interactive Simulations, University of Colorado
heat source and watch what http://phet.colorado.edu/en/simulation/energy­forms­and­changes
happens. Licensed attribution noncommercial, nonderivative.

 Click and drag the

brick, the water and the iron block over the heat sources and turn

Created by The North Carolina School of Science and Math.

Copyright 2012. North Carolina Department of Public Instruction. 1
 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 Iron reaches the maximum
temperature very quickly, then
gradually returns to its
original temperature. I think
the maximum temperature is
actually higher than what the
thermometer can read
Brick Brick takes a bit longer to
reach its maximum
temperature (which seems to
be less than iron), and is also
slower in returning to its
original temperature
Water Water is the slowest in
reaching its maximum
temperature (which is the
lowest), and also takes a lot of
time to return to its original
temperature
Iron is able to absorb the
most amount of energy,
Brick isn’t able to absorb
nearly as much energy as
iron, and begins to lose
energy a lot sooner once
it reaches its maximum
temperature
Water is able to absorb
the most amount of
energy, but it already
starts with a large
amount of energy; when
the temperature reaches
the boiling point, energy
quickly escapes along
with the vapor

What does this simulation show you about heat and energy?
Different substances take in/lose thermal energy different rates, and
they have different maximum capacities of energy/heat.

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 it’s 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 drops significantly, but the temperature of
the water only rises slightly; they meet at an equilibrium temperature.

How did the energy move?

The transferred from the brick into the water.

Repeat the same experiment but this time heat the iron and place it in
the water.
The same things occurred, only with more energy involved (as iron
absorbed more heat on the fire than brick did); the temperature of the
iron changed a lot quicker than the temperature of water as the energy
transferred from the iron to water.

Record your observations:

When mixing the two substances, they will result in an equilibrium
temperature; still, it takes the more energy to change the temperature of
water than to change the temperature of iron or brick, so the
temperature will be closer to the original temperature of the water.

Repeat the same experiment but this time heat the water and place the
cool iron in the water.
Record your observations:
The iron and the water reached the same temperature, but the
equilibrium temperature was closer to the water temperature than the
iron temperature (the iron temp. rose significantly)

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 two substances actually didn’t meet an equilibrium temperature;
the temperature of water ended up being higher than the temperature of
the brick. Still, the brick’s temperature increased a lot more than the
water’s temperature had to decrease.

What does this simulation show you about heat and energy?
Heat energy changes the temperature of different substances in
different ways based on the heat capacity of the substance. Also, all
substances are going to result at an equilibrium temperature through
energy transfer, but not an energy equilibrium.

Created by The North Carolina School of Science and Math.

Copyright 2012. North Carolina Department of Public Instruction. 4