Lesson 2: Investigating Energy Changes in Collisions

What happens to motion energy when objects collide?

The faster an object moves, the more motion energy it has. When a moving object collides with a stationary object, the moving object slows down (its motion energy decreases) and the stationary object begins to move faster (its motion energy increases). Because the speed of the objects changes during a collision, this is evidence that the motion energy of the objects also changes. Energy is transferred from a moving marble to a stationary marble during a collision. The faster an object is moving, the more motion (kinetic) energy it has and the more motion (kinetic) energy can be transferred through collisions.

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