Question

Which has more PE, the same bowling ball held 5 meters in the air or the ping pong ball held at 5 meters? Explain.

Answer 1

Answer:

The bowling ball

Explanation:

The PE (gravitational potential energy) of an object is given by:

$PE=mgh$

where

m is the mass of the object

g is the gravitational acceleration

h is the height of the object above the ground

In this case, we are comparing the PE of a bowling ball and of a ping pong ball. The two balls are located at same height (h=5 m) and the gravitational acceleration is the same (g=9.8 m/s^2), so their PE depends only on their mass: since the bowling ball has a greater mass than the ping pong ball, the bowling ball will have a greater PE.