Elastic Collisions ➝ What happens next? Worksheet and Slides (Differentiated)

A differentiated activity worksheet for students and Keynote¹ presentation with answers. Four different elastic collisions are presented and students have to apply conservation of momentum and conservation of kinetic energy to the collision to determine the correct outcome. The problems range in difficulty from straightforward to advanced problem solving.

There are two versions of the activity included:

1. Extension version with limited guidance on the task.
2. Accessible version with four possible outcomes shown that students need to evaluate.
   (Both worksheets are combined into the single pdf document - just print what you need.)

This is a paid version of a lite product which includes the same task without the differentiated version.

The worksheet should prove self explanatory for students. The presentation is designed to aid the teacher’s explanation. There are slides that can be used to show solutions for both versions of the worksheet giving the teacher the option to choose how to work through the the tasks. The slides linked to the differentiated version include the algebraic working to analyse conservation of momentum and KE - making the teacher’s life even easier!

¹ The presentation is made with Keynote which is Apple’s presentation software. It can be exported to PowerPoint but I don’t guarantee the output will look and operate in the same way. Keynote is an app available on macOS, iOS and iPadOS for free with most new or new-ish Apple devices. You have my permission to try exporting into PowerPoint for your personal use in teaching your classes.