Question

At the end of the ride up a steep hill, Ken was at an elevation of 1600 meters above where he started. He figured out that he and his bicycle had accomplished 1,000,000 joules of work. If Ken has a mass of 54 kg, what is the mass of his bicycle?

Answer 1

Work done against the gravity is given as

$U = (m_1 + m_2)gh$

here we know that

$m_1 = 54 kg$

g = 9.8 m/s^2

h = 1600 m

now from above formula we will have

$U = (m_1 + m_2)\times 9.8\times 1600$

$1,000,000 = (54 + m_2)\times 15680$

$m_2 + 54 = 63.78$

$m_2 = 9.77 kg$

so mass of his bicycle is 9.77 kg