IB DP Physics (2025) A3.3 Gravitational & Elastic Potential Energy

IB DP Physics gravitational and elastic potential energy lesson pack, Topic A.3 Work, energy and power, SL and HL, first assessment 2025: where ΔEp = mgΔh and EH = ½k(Δx)² come from. Editable worksheet, 69-slide lesson deck, teacher key, worked solutions and a questions-only assessment, supplied as self-contained HTML plus colour and black-and-white PDF.

What students learn

• The work done by a body’s weight depends only on its change in height, whatever the path, so ΔEp = mgΔh close to the Earth’s surface.
• ΔEp with its sign, and why a value of Ep depends on the level chosen as zero while a change in it does not.
• Why a block and tackle reduces the force needed to lift a load, but not the energy.
• EH = ½k(Δx)² from the area under a force–extension line, and why it has no minus sign although Hooke’s law does.
• k and EH read from a graph: twice the stretch stores four times the energy, so the second half of it takes three times the first.

IB skills (Tool 3: Mathematics):

• Interpret the gradient of a graph and the area under it (practised).
• Understand direct and inverse proportionality (practised).
• Derive relationships algebraically (practised).
• Propagate uncertainties in processed data (practised).

What’s included:

• Student Worksheet - 23 pages
• Teacher Key - 33 pages
• Worked Solutions - 24 pages
• Assessment - 18 pages
• Lesson deck - 69 slides

Eight structured questions and five multiple-choice items: 61 marks across 36 parts, and seventeen figures, four with answer layers stripped from the student copy, not hidden. Five questions, 33 marks, are worked in the room, between two opening votes and a multiple-choice exit ticket. The rest go home, including two exam-style questions and a nine-mark data question in the Paper 1B pattern: a trampoline spring, the energy it stores and its uncertainty.

Hooke’s law is assumed, not taught. The lesson stops at the two formulas: mechanical energy and its conservation are left to a later lesson, and the area under the line is used for the spring alone. Worksheet and deck open in any modern browser with nothing to install, and the worksheet is fully editable. SI units, IB notation and IB command terms throughout. Suitable for grades 11-12 (ages 16-19) as a lesson, cover lesson, homework or revision.

Related resources:

• Work Done and Kinetic Energy, the lesson before this one
• What Is a Force? Contact and Field Forces, where Hooke’s law is taught
• Proportionality and Scaling, the skill pack behind the ratio questions
• Measuring the Acceleration of Free Fall, where uncertainty propagation is taught (free)

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