Energy Diagram Analysis
Highlights of the activity
- This small group activity is designed to help upper-division undergraduate students to obtain qualitative information from an energy diagram.
- Students are presented with two potential energy vs. displacement graphs and asked to determine which would yield a greater period if a mass were oscillating subject to each potential.
- The wrap-up discussion focuses on how to make good assumptions for interpreting a graph and how to extract good information from an energy graph.
Reasons to spend class time on the activity
Students are so used to the idea of quantitative measurement from their introductory physics courses. This activity helps them learn to think qualitatively by asking them to gather information from an energy graph and to correlate a graphical description of a system with its physical representation.