Hi my name's Stephen and I'm a science interpreter here at the Franklin Institute and I'm gonna show you an experiment using energy. Now all I need for it are these Popsicle sticks. You can also call them tongue depressor if you like. If you buy them in the store, they're probably called craft sticks. But as you can see I've woven some together and this is how I do it. It takes some practice. And if you want to look up how to do it on the Internet and that's how I learned. It's called a cobrawea
ve. And the YouTube I watched was a boy that was about eight years old and he does a great job of explaining it. So. This Popsicle stick is made out of wood. If I bend it like this. What will happen if I let go? Will it stay bent like this or will it move? Let's find out. OK. So it moved. This Popsicle stick when you bend it a certain amount will boing back. So it's boingable and in science we call that elasticity. So these wooden popsicle sticks are elastic. Which means they boing back. So I'm
going to hold them bent, not with my hand but with other Popsicle sticks. So when it snaps and moves like that. That movement must have gotten its energy from somewhere. And bending it, since it is elastic, is storing it up with energy. And stored energy in science we call potential energy because it's not moving yet. Then when it moves. That potential energy transforms into kinetic energy which means it's moving. So rather than hold it with my hand these Popsicle sticks are all holding each oth
er. So if I take one out Do you think they'll be going the same way? I sure think so. Let's find out though. I made this big one. Let's try the big one all right. Ready. Now. Three. Two. One. Kinetic energy!
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