Please help me I only have a few questions and need this turned in by the end of the day! In all of our simulations we left the
Coefficient of Friction set to 0. As a result, you should have noticed that the potential energy would transfer directly into kinetic energy as it went down the hill (and vice versa as it went up a hill.) Describe what trends you would expect to see if we included a Coefficient of Friction (in other words, added friction into the simulation).
In the absence of non-conservative forces that is friction, the mechanical energy remains conserved. The potential energy changes to kinetic energy as it goes down the hill. At the bottom of the hill
the entire potential energy transforms to kinetic energy. In the presence of dissipative forces like frictional forces, some of the energy is dissipated as heat. So, potential energy does not convert entirely to kinetic energy.
If coefficient of friction was included, the graph would not be straight line but a curved as at the bottom, the kinetic energy is not equal to the potential energy at the top of the hill.
To calculate torque, we multiply the distance from the pivot by the perpendicular (the part of the force that acts at right angles to the displacement vector) component of the force to the displacement vector from the pivot.
torque = distance from pivot * perpendicular force
170 Nm= 0.4 m * F
F = 425 N = 4.3 * 10 N rounded off to two significant figures
