Description
Conservation of energy is a string of formulas in a textbook, and it is hard to picture kinetic and potential energy trading places. PhET's Energy Skate Park: Basics sends a skater rolling along a track while kinetic, potential and thermal energy are drawn live as bar charts.
Drag the track into a new shape, switch the planet's gravity or turn friction on and see the result immediately — far more intuitive than a blackboard derivation.
Live energy charts: Bar and pie charts track kinetic, potential and thermal energy together.
Build your own track: Drag control points to design a track and watch how the shape changes the motion.
Gravity and friction: Swap planets or toggle friction to compare energy loss.
Single-file offline: Saved as one HTML file that runs in the browser without a connection.
Drag the track into a new shape, switch the planet's gravity or turn friction on and see the result immediately — far more intuitive than a blackboard derivation.
Features
Live energy charts: Bar and pie charts track kinetic, potential and thermal energy together.
Build your own track: Drag control points to design a track and watch how the shape changes the motion.
Gravity and friction: Swap planets or toggle friction to compare energy loss.
Single-file offline: Saved as one HTML file that runs in the browser without a connection.
