ASPECt
Energy: Forms, Transformation, Transfer, and Conservation
Item RG053003: A spring will jump higher if it is compressed more before letting go.
A child has a spring. She wants to see how high she can make the spring jump into the air. First she pushes the spring down just a little bit and lets it go. Then she pushes the spring down as far as she can and lets it go. For each try, she watches the spring jump and measures how high the spring went.
Did the spring jump higher on the first or second try? Why?
- The spring jumped higher on the first try because it was only pushed down a little bit.
- The spring jumped higher on the second try because it was pushed down more than on the first try.
- The spring jumped the same height on both tries because it is the same spring.
- More information is needed because how high a spring jumps does not depend on how much it is pushed down.
Answer Choice |
Overall |
Grades |
Gender |
Primary Language |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| n = 3763 |
4–5 n = 741 | 6–8 n = 1560 |
9–12 n = 1462 |
Male n = 1748 |
Female n = 1900 |
English n = 3370 |
Other n = 265 |
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| A. | The spring jumped higher on the first try because it was only pushed down a little bit. | 7% | 11% | 6% | 6% | 7% | 7% | 7% | 13% |
| B. | The spring jumped higher on the second try because it was pushed down more than on the first try. | 82% | 78% | 83% | 82% | 81% | 82% | 83% | 72% |
| C. | The spring jumped the same height on both tries because it is the same spring. | 5% | 5% | 4% | 6% | 6% | 5% | 5% | 6% |
| D. | More information is needed because how high a spring jumps does not depend on how much it is pushed down. | 6% | 6% | 7% | 6% | 6% | 6% | 6% | 9% |