Question

A roller coaster is at the top of a 72m hill and weighs 966N. At the top of the hill the coaster car has__________ energy. Calculate it.

Answer 1

Given:

The height of the roller coaster, h=72 m

The weight of the roller coaster, w=966 N

To find:

The nature and the amount of energy of the roller coaster.

Explanation:

The potential energy of an object is the energy possessed by the object due to its position. The type of potential energy that is associated with the height of the object is the gravitational potential energy. Thus the energy that the car has is the gravitational potential energy.

The gravitational potential energy of the car is given by,

$\begin{gathered} E=mgh \\ =wh \end{gathered}$

Where m is the mass of the car and g is the acceleration due to gravity.

On substituting the known values,

$\begin{gathered} E=966\times72 \\ =69552\text{ J} \end{gathered}$

Final answer:

The coaster car has gravitational potential energy.

The potential energy of the car is 69552 J