Grade 6 Science Practice Test: Kinetic and Potential Energy
- Kinetic and Potential Energy
- 10 questions
- 13 minutes
Ten questions on energy of motion and stored energy. Tip: kinetic energy depends on mass and speed, gravitational potential energy depends on mass and height.
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Question 1
Which object has the most kinetic energy?
Correct answer: D
Kinetic energy grows with both mass and speed. The moving truck has a large mass and a high speed, while the parked truck has no kinetic energy at all.
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Question 2
Which book has the most gravitational potential energy?
Correct answer: A
Gravitational potential energy depends on mass and height. The heavier book on the higher shelf has the most; the book on the floor has the least.
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Question 3
A roller coaster car starts at the top of a tall hill, rolls down and then climbs a smaller hill.
Where does the car have the most kinetic energy?
Correct answer: C
As the car drops, potential energy turns into kinetic energy, so it moves fastest at the lowest point. At the tops of hills more energy is stored as potential energy.
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Question 4
A bike's speed doubles. Its mass stays the same.
What happens to its kinetic energy?
Correct answer: B
Kinetic energy depends on speed squared, so 2 × 2 = 4 times as much. Saying "it doubles" treats speed like mass.
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Question 5
Two carts roll at the same speed. Cart B has twice the mass of Cart A.
How does Cart B's kinetic energy compare?
Correct answer: A
At the same speed, kinetic energy is directly proportional to mass, so twice the mass gives twice the energy. The squaring applies to speed, not mass.
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Question 6
A rubber band is stretched back on a toy launcher and held in place.
What kind of energy does it mainly have?
Correct answer: D
A stretched or compressed object stores elastic potential energy. It becomes kinetic energy when the rubber band is released.
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Question 7
A pendulum swings back and forth.
At the highest point of its swing, the pendulum bob has
Correct answer: B
At the highest point the bob stops for an instant, so its kinetic energy is lowest, and its height, and potential energy, are greatest.
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Question 8
A ball is dropped from a balcony. As it falls toward the ground, which energy change happens?
Correct answer: C
As the ball loses height it loses potential energy, and it gains the same amount as speed, or kinetic energy (ignoring air resistance).
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Question 9
A bouncing ball rises a little lower after each bounce.
What best explains this?
Correct answer: D
Energy is not destroyed. With each bounce some of it becomes sound and heat in the ball and floor, so less is left to lift the ball.
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Question 10
A 4 kg ball rolls at 3 m/s. Using KE = ½ × mass × speed², what is its kinetic energy?
Correct answer: B
½ × 4 × 3² = ½ × 4 × 9 = 18 J. Forgetting the ½ gives 36 J, and forgetting to square the speed gives 6 J.
Questions you leave blank are not counted as wrong.
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