Energy Transfer in a closed system using a ball: Interactive Simulation
Closed System Energy Transfer — Simulation Description
This interactive simulation models a bouncing ball inside a closed system, directly aligned with the AQA GCSE Physics specification (Energy, Topic 1.1) and the broader GCSE Combined Science curriculum.
In a closed system, no energy enters or leaves — the total amount of energy remains constant. The simulation demonstrates this principle in real time through three energy stores:
- Kinetic Energy (KE) — the energy the ball possesses due to its motion, greatest at the point of impact with the floor
- Gravitational Potential Energy (GPE) — the energy stored due to the ball’s height above the ground, greatest at the peak of each bounce
- Thermal Energy — energy dissipated to the surroundings through friction and impact, accumulating with each bounce
The stacked bar and live percentages confirm the core GCSE principle: energy is never created or destroyed, only transferred between stores (conservation of energy, AQA Physics 4.1.1).
The friction slider allows students to explore two contrasting scenarios. At zero friction the ball bounces indefinitely, with KE and GPE cycling between 100% and 0% — a perfect closed system with no dissipation. As friction increases, mechanical energy is progressively transferred to the thermal store with each bounce until the ball comes to rest and all energy reads as thermal (KE = 0%, GPE = 0%, Thermal = 100%).
This maps directly to the GCSE required understanding that students must be able to “describe all the changes involved in the way energy is stored when a system changes”, and explain why useful energy is degraded to thermal energy in real-world systems. The simulation also supports the concept of energy dissipation — energy becoming less useful as it spreads into the thermal store — which underpins GCSE discussions of efficiency and energy conservation in everyday contexts.