What Does It Mean? 🤔
Let's learn together
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When you stretch or squeeze something stretchy, like a rubber band, you are storing up energy inside it. That stored-up energy is called elastic potential energy, and it is just waiting for a chance to be released.
Fix built a catapult using craft sticks and a rubber band. Pulling back the rubber band loaded it up with elastic potential energy — and letting go released all of that energy at once to launch the projectile!
The more you stretch something elastic, the more elastic potential energy it stores, up to a point. That is why pulling the catapult back farther made it launch things faster and farther.
See It in Action! 👀
Real examples
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A stretched rubber band stores elastic potential energy before it launches!
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A trampoline stores elastic potential energy when you jump and stretch the springs!
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Fix's catapult used elastic potential energy from a rubber band to launch marshmallows!
For Grown-Ups! 👨👩������
Help kids learn
👨👩👧 Teaching Tips
Let kids feel the stretch of a rubber band themselves and notice how the pull-back gets harder the farther they stretch — this physical sensation is a strong intuition builder for stored energy.
🏫 Classroom Ideas
Have students build simple rubber-band catapults and test how pull-back distance affects launch distance, recording their results in a simple data table.