A rollercoaster carriage of mass 100kg has 45kJ of Kinetic Energy at the lowest point of its ride. Ignoring air resistance and friction between the wheels and the tracks, what is the maximum height above this point it could reach? [Take g as 10m/s/s)

[A useful tip: always start by drawing a diagram!!]This question is asking you to apply conservation of energy, i.e. at the highest point it can reach above the lowest point, all of this Kinetic Energy will have been transferred to Gravitational Potential Energy. This requires use of the equations KE=GPE and GPE=mgh, where m is the mass (in kg), g is the acceleration due to gravity (in m/s/s) and h is the maximum height above the lowest point (in m). All units of energy must be in J for these equations to give the right answers.To get the height, rearrange the equations to give h=KE/mg, or rather h=45000/(100x10)=45m(Note: the question gave the energy in kJ, so the number had to be multiplied by 1000 to give it in J, which gave the height in m) 

RW

Related Physics GCSE answers

All answers ▸

What is the current in a circuit?


A 100kg weight is placed 0.75 meters from a see-saw on the right hand side. Dan is 75kg. How far away does he have to sit from the pivot on the left hand side to have it balance?


In a doppler shift why does a moving source show no increase in speed of the mechanical waves emitted?


A sound wave has a frequency of 500 Hz. The sound wave has a wavelength of 0.34 m in air. Calculate the speed of the sound wave in air?