Gravitational Potential Energy & Kinetic Energy
acceleration due to gravity = 9.8 m/s2
1. A car has a mass of 750 kg. Calculate its kinetic energy at the following velocities
(a) 10 m/s (b) 15 m/s (c) 20 m/s (d) 30 m/s (e) 35 m/s {NB 1 m/s =2 m p h}
2. (a) A car has a mass of 1000 kg. Calculate its KE at a velocity of 25 m/s.
(b) A train has a mass of 37 tonnes {1 tonne = 1000 kg}. If it also has a velocity of 25 m/s what is its kinetic energy ?
3. A woman has a mass of 65 kg.What is her GPE at the top of a 12 metre diving board ?
4. A cat has a mass of 6 kg. What is its GPE at the top of a tree that is 4.2 m above the ground ?
5. The Eiffel Tower is 300 m high. What is the GPE of a 100 g bird perched on the top of it ?
6. The Great Pyramid of Khufu (Cheops to the Greeks) is 146 m high. It is made of stones of mass 250 t. What is the GPE of the topmost stone ?
7. The Empire State Building is 449 m high(but this includes a 68 m TV mast).What is the GPE of a ball of mass 400 g at the top of the building (not the TV mast) ? If the ball is dropped over the side what will happen to the GPE ? What will be its speed at the instant before it hits the ground ? (Ignoring air resistance)
8. Olympus Mons is a volcano on Mars. It is 25 km high. What would be the GPE of a human of mass 50 kg on its summit ? (surface gravity = 0.38 that of Earth) Compare this with the same human standing on the summit of Everest 8534 m high.
9. The space shuttle has a mass of 80 t. Escape velocity (the velocity an object has to travel at in order to escape the earth's gravitational field) is 11 km/s. What is its KE at this speed? If all this KE is turned into GPE how high would it be ? What assumption do you have to make in your calculation.
How much energy would it take to accelerate the space shuttle to light speed (300 000 km/s). {This is not possible, also the equation you will use to calculate KE is not valid near the speed of light but it will do for this purpose} A nuclear power station produces around 500 MW
(500 000 000 J per second). How long would 100 power stations take to produce this amount of energy?
How feasible is travelling close to the speed of light?
The nearest star is about 4 light years away. How long would it take the space shuttle to get there at 11 km/s (22 000 mph)? {1 light year is the distance light will travel in 1 year}
How feasible is interstellar travel?
