Question

Two skiers arrive at the bottom of a ramp travelling at the same speed. Friction may be ignored in this problem. One skier is an adult and one is a child. The adult has 3 times the mass of the child. Which skier makes it to a greater height on the ramp before coming to a stop?

Answer 1

Answer:

Both will reach to same height

Explanation:

Here we can see that friction is to be ignored

so we can say that work done by all the non conservative forces is change in mechanical energy

Since all non conservative forces here is zero

so mechanical energy is conserved here

so here we can say that sum of initial kinetic energy and potential energy = sum of final kinetic energy and potential energy

So we will have

$\frac{1}{2}mv^2 = mgH$

now maximum height is given as

$H = \frac{v^2}{2g}$

so here we can say that greatest height will be independent of the mass so they both will reach at same height