Home
/
Physics
/
(b) As the person moves down the zip wire her increase in kinetic energy is less than her decrease in gravitationa potential energy. Explain why. __

Question

(b) As the person moves down the zip wire her increase in kinetic energy is less than her decrease in gravitationa potential energy. Explain why. __

(b) As the person moves down the zip wire her increase in kinetic energy is less than her decrease in gravitationa potential energy. Explain why. __

expert verifiedVerification of experts

Answer

3.8362 Voting
avatar
BarclayAdvanced · Tutor for 1 years

Answer

The increase in kinetic energy is less than the decrease in gravitational potential energy due to the work done against non-conservative forces such as air resistance and friction. These forces convert some of the gravitational potential energy into heat energy, which is dissipated into the environment.

Explain

## Step 1: Understanding the Energy Conservation Principle<br />The principle of conservation of energy states that the total energy in a closed system remains constant. In the context of the zip wire, the person's total energy is the sum of her kinetic energy and gravitational potential energy.<br /><br />## Step 2: Analyzing the Energy Transformation<br />As the person moves down the zip wire, her height decreases, which leads to a decrease in her gravitational potential energy. Simultaneously, her speed increases, leading to an increase in her kinetic energy.<br /><br />## Step 3: Explaining the Energy Discrepancy<br />The increase in kinetic energy being less than the decrease in gravitational potential energy can be explained by the presence of non-conservative forces, such as air resistance and friction in the pulley system of the zip wire. These forces convert some of the gravitational potential energy into heat energy, which is then dissipated into the environment. Therefore, not all of the lost gravitational potential energy is converted into kinetic energy.<br /><br />### The formula for gravitational potential energy is: <br />### \( PE = mgh \)<br />### where m is mass, g is the acceleration due to gravity, and h is height.<br /><br />### The formula for kinetic energy is: <br />### \( KE = \frac{1}{2}mv^2 \)<br />### where m is mass and v is velocity.
Click to rate:

Hot Questions

More x