If you want to tell a friend about a fish you caught or a tree you cut down,
you're going to tell him WHERE you were ... its position in space, 3 numbers,
'x', 'y', and 'z' ... and also WHEN you were ... its position in time, one more
number.
Dimensions are numbers used to describe the location of a point, and the
difference in location between two points. With four numbers, you can exactly
describe the location of anything, and its distance from any other thing, in
space and time.
Wow ! This is not simple. At first, it looks like there's not enough information, because we don't know the mass of the cars. But I"m pretty sure it turns out that we don't need to know it.
At the top of the first hill, the car's potential energy is
PE = (mass) x (gravity) x (height) .
At the bottom, the car's kinetic energy is
KE = (1/2) (mass) (speed²) .
You said that the car's speed is 70 m/s at the bottom of the hill,
and you also said that 10% of the energy will be lost on the way
down. So now, here comes the big jump. Put a comment under
my answer if you don't see where I got this equation:
KE = 0.9 PE
(1/2) (mass) (70 m/s)² = (0.9) (mass) (gravity) (height)
Divide each side by (mass):
(0.5) (4900 m²/s²) = (0.9) (9.8 m/s²) (height)
(There goes the mass. As long as the whole thing is 90% efficient,
the solution will be the same for any number of cars, loaded with
any number of passengers.)
Divide each side by (0.9):
(0.5/0.9) (4900 m²/s²) = (9.8 m/s²) (height)
Divide each side by (9.8 m/s²):
Height = (5/9)(4900 m²/s²) / (9.8 m/s²)
= (5 x 4900 m²/s²) / (9 x 9.8 m/s²)
= (24,500 / 88.2) (m²/s²) / (m/s²)
= 277-7/9 meters
(about 911 feet)
