The energy of toy poppers

Activity write up

Objective:

Design an experiment that will allow you to determine the stored elastic potiential energy in "popper" toy, write it down, then discuss your method with your teacher before starting.

Preliminary question

1. Do you think that all of the stored elastic potiential energy is converted to gravitational energy? Explain your answer.

Include in your write up;

1. Your procedure including what you measured and how.
2. Data table.
3. Discuss the energy transformations and include a diagram listing the types and values of energy
   1. before the toy pops
   2. at its peak of flight
   3. at 1/2 of its height
4. Example of each type of calculation.
5. Calculate the maximun PE_g
6. Discuss how you would modify this lab to make your data more accurate.

Extension:

1. Calculate the speed with which the popper "pops"
2. Calculate the elastic co-efficient "k" of the popper.