EVERYDAY SCIENCE - ENERGY
Question 1

Shot put is a sport where athletes take turns to try to throw a ball as far as they can. Ace signed up for a shot put tournament and he wanted to train with a greater load than he usually does.

From initially using a 3 kg ball, he began to use a 4 kg ball. He threw the 4 kg ball to the same maximum height as the 3 kg ball.

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Answer 1

Fill in the blanks with the keywords provided below.
[higher] • [maximum] • [gravitational potential energy] • [kinetic energy] • [converted] • [depth] • [mass] • [height]

a) State the difference that Ace would observe on the ground when he picks up the 4 kg ball, after it has landed, as compared to the 3 kg ball.

Answer:

He would observe that the 4 kg ball would produce a dent in the ground with a greater as compared to when he had launched the 3 kg ball.


b) Explain, in terms of energy, why he observed this difference in part (a).

Answer:

The 4 kg ball has greater than the 3 kg ball. Therefore, the 4 kg ball has more than the 3 kg ball at the same . More gravitational potential energy is then converted to more which is transferred to the sand. The greater movement of the sand caused a deeper hole to form.


c) Other than increasing the mass of the ball, what could Ace do to make a deeper dent using only the 3 kg ball?

Answer:

He could throw the ball higher to increase the height of the ball. For objects with the same mass, the the object is above the ground, the more gravitational potential energy it has.
This potential energy can be into more kinetic energy.




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“The Olympic record for men’s Shot Put is 22.52 m! That is more than 7 times the length of a basketball post. Imagine throwing such a heavy object that far!”