In this activity there are two types of energy involved in the marble's fall, kinetic and potential. Let's look at potential and kinetic energy and then study their relationship. When you hold the marble above the sand, it has a mass and gravity is pulling down on it. Believe it or not this marble has energy you hold it there. Calculate the potential energy for the marbles in the velocity experiment.
Kinetic energy is the energy of bodies in motion.
Calculate the KE for each marble. The other marbles had only kinetic energy from their potential energy. We have just seen that 3 factors effecting the size of a crater are mass, speed and size of impacting meteorite. One of the best ways to examine a crater's structure is to make a fresh young crater. In this continuation of the Impact Cratering Lab, we will look at the parts of a fresh, young crater.