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 ▸

A 70Kg person jumps out of a plane and deploys a parachute, once the parachute is open the wind resistance acting on the person and the parachute is 900N. What is the direction and magnitude of the persons acceleration.


There is an oil tank that has a rectangular base of dimensions 2.4 m by 1.5 m. The tank is filled with oil of density 850 kg / m3 to a depth of 1.5 m. What is the mass of the oil?


Explain what led to the plum pudding model of the atom being replaced by the nuclear model of the atom.


What is the difference between a longitudinal and a transverse wave?