ASPECt
Energy: Forms, Transformation, Transfer, and Conservation
Item RG119002: When a battery is used to power a flashlight, a small amount of energy is transformed into thermal energy.
A student determines the amount of light that a flashlight produces and finds that the energy transferred by light is slightly lower than the energy that is released from the batteries. He suspects the flashlight is not working correctly.
Which of the following accounts for the decrease in energy observed by the student?
- A small amount of energy was destroyed in the operation of the flashlight.
- A small amount of energy was transformed into thermal energy, which the student didn’t measure.
- A small amount of energy was transformed into thermal energy, which the student didn’t measure, and a small amount of energy was destroyed.
- The student must have made a measurement error; all of the energy from the batteries should have been transformed into light.
- Distribution of Responses
- Scale Score for Item Difficulty
(200[Easy]-800[Difficult]) - 500
- Students Responding Correctly
| Group | Correct | Total | Percent |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 657 | 1502 | 44% |
| Grades | |||
| 4–5 | 23 | 77 | 30% |
| 6–8 | 290 | 812 | 36% |
| 9–12 | 344 | 613 | 56% |
| Gender | |||
| Male | 324 | 743 | 44% |
| Female | 323 | 737 | 44% |
| Primary Language | |||
| English | 592 | 1356 | 44% |
| Other | 45 | 106 | 42% |