Question

How high would you have to lift a 1000kg car to give it a potential energy of:

Answer 1

Given parameters:

Mass of the car = 1000kg

Unknown:

Height  = ?

To find the heights for the different amount potential energy given, we need to understand what potential energy is.

Potential energy is the energy at rest due to the position of a body.

 It is mathematically expressed as:

          P.E  = mgh

m is the mass

g is the acceleration due to gravity = 9.8m/s²

h is the height of the car

Now the unknown is h, height and we make it the subject of the expression to make for easy calculation.

               h = $\frac{P.E }{mg}$

For 2.0 x 10³ J;

                  h  = $\frac{2000}{1000 x 9.8}$   = 0.204m

For 2.0 x 10⁵ J;

                  h  = $\frac{200000}{9.8 x 1000}$   = 20.4m

For 1.0kJ  = 1 x 10³J;

                  h  = $\frac{1000}{9.8 x 1000}$   = 0.102m