Question

you are holding a bowling ball with a mass of 6 kg at a height of 1 meter. How much gravitational potential energy does the bowling ball have?

Answer 1

The formula for GPE is PE=mgh, where “m” is the mass of the object, “g” is the acceleration due to gravity (~9.8 m/s^2 on Earth’s surface), and “h” is the height of the object from the ground. Therefore,

PE=mgh

PE=(6 kg)(9.8 m/s^2)(1 m)

PE=58.8 kg•m^2/s^2 or 58.8 Newtons

The GPE of the bowling ball under these conditions would be about 59 Newtons.

Hope this helps!