Question

A hard rubber ball on a string is being used as a pendulum. When you first look at the pendulum, the ball is being held to one side with the string fully extended. Suddenly, the ball is released from rest and allowed to swing back and forth. For the first three or four swings, the ball almost reaches the height from which it was released. However, after a long time has passed, the ball finally comes to rest, hanging straight down. (a) If the ball has a mass of 6.2 kg and is released from a height of 98 cm above its final resting height, find the amount of additional thermal energy that now exists in the air, the ball, the string, and the pivot of the pendulum. Give your answer in joules.

Answer 1

Answer:

Total thermal energy for all air molecules is 59.54 J

Explanation:

As we know that the ball comes to rest finally so here we can say that

initial total potential energy of the ball is transferred to the air molecules

So here we have

$E_{th} = mgh$

$E_{th} = (6.2 kg)(9.8 m/s^2)(0.98 m)$

So here we have

$E_{th} = 59.54 J$

So all the gravitational potential energy of the ball will convert into thermal energy of air molecules which is equal to 59.54 J