ASPECt
Energy: Forms, Transformation, Transfer, and Conservation
Item EG019005: When a bird is flying with a stick in its mouth, the bird has more gravitational potential energy because it weighs more than the stick.
A bird is flying in the sky. The bird has a stick in its mouth. The bird weighs more than the stick.
Does the bird or the stick have more gravitational potential energy and why? (Assume that the bird and the stick are the same distance above the ground.)
- The stick has more gravitational potential energy than the bird because the bird is giving the stick gravitational potential energy by carrying it.
- The bird has more gravitational potential energy than the stick because gravitational potential energy depends on weight, and the bird weighs more than the stick.
- They have the same amount of gravitational potential energy because gravitational potential energy depends only on speed, and the bird and the stick are going at the same speed.
- They have the same amount of gravitational potential energy because gravitational potential energy depends only on the distance above the ground, and the bird and the stick are the same distance above the ground.
- Distribution of Responses
- Scale Score for Item Difficulty
(200[Easy]-800[Difficult]) - 488
- Students Responding Correctly
| Group | Correct | Total | Percent |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 719 | 1494 | 48% |
| Grades | |||
| 4–5 | 164 | 281 | 58% |
| 6–8 | 279 | 627 | 44% |
| 9–12 | 276 | 586 | 47% |
| Gender | |||
| Male | 350 | 732 | 48% |
| Female | 355 | 738 | 48% |
| Primary Language | |||
| English | 619 | 1275 | 49% |
| Other | 82 | 180 | 46% |
- Disciplinary Core Ideas
- PS3.A A system of objects may also contain stored (potential) energy, depending on their relative positions.
- Notes
- The relationship between mass and gravitational potential energy is not addressed in NGSS.