Science Assessment ~ Topics ~ Energy: Forms, Transformation, Transfer, and Conservation ~ Item RG062003 ~ Student Performance

Two girls are playing with two paper airplanes that are exactly the same. The girls stand the same distance from a wall and throw the airplanes toward the wall at different speeds. The first girl throws her airplane faster than the second girl. As the airplanes are flying, which one has more energy and why?

The faster airplane has more energy because if two things are exactly the same, the faster one will always have more energy.
The slower airplane has more energy because it takes longer to hit the wall, and the amount of energy a thing has increases as it is moving.
The airplanes have the same amount of energy because they are exactly the same type of airplane.
The airplanes have the same amount of energy because they are flying the same distance.

Distribution of responses
Answer Choice		Overall	Grades			Gender		Primary Language
		n = 3844	4–5 n = 850	6–8 n = 1623	9–12 n = 1371	Male n = 1790	Female n = 1957	English n = 3415	Other n = 312
A.	The faster airplane has more energy because if two things are exactly the same, the faster one will always have more energy.	60%	59%	58%	62%	61%	59%	60%	57%
B.	The slower airplane has more energy because it takes longer to hit the wall, and the amount of energy a thing has increases as it is moving.	17%	21%	17%	15%	16%	19%	17%	23%
C.	The airplanes have the same amount of energy because they are exactly the same type of airplane.	14%	12%	14%	13%	14%	14%	14%	12%
D.	The airplanes have the same amount of energy because they are flying the same distance.	9%	8%	10%	9%	9%	9%	9%	7%

Science Assessment

Item RG062003: When comparing two airplanes thrown at different speeds, the faster plane has more energy because it has a higher speed.