ASPECt
Energy: Forms, Transformation, Transfer, and Conservation
Item EG089001: Two apples hanging from a tree will have different amounts of gravitational potential energy if one is hanging higher in the tree than the other.
Two identical apples are hanging from a tree. Is it possible for the apples to have different amounts of gravitational potential energy and why?
- No, because the apples have the same mass, and gravitational potential energy depends only on the mass of an object
- No, because both apples have the potential to fall from the tree, and gravitational potential energy is the potential to start moving
- Yes, if one apple is hanging higher in the tree than the other one, because gravitational energy depends on how high an object is above the ground
- Yes, if one apple is just about to fall from the tree and the other one is not, because gravitational potential energy depends on how likely an object is to fall
Answer Choice |
Overall |
Grades |
Gender |
Primary Language |
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| n = 1842 |
4–5 n = 354 | 6–8 n = 810 |
9–12 n = 678 |
Male n = 839 |
Female n = 952 |
English n = 1678 |
Other n = 109 |
|
| A. | 19% | 24% | 20% | 17% | 21% | 18% | 19% | 19% |
| B. | 14% | 19% | 13% | 13% | 16% | 13% | 14% | 21% |
| C. | 50% | 37% | 49% | 58% | 48% | 52% | 51% | 40% |
| D. | 16% | 20% | 17% | 13% | 15% | 16% | 16% | 19% |