Question

Galileo is said to have dropped cannonballs from the Leaning Tower of Pisa to study gravity he drops a 5 kg ball from a height of 12 meters, how much potential energy will the have?

Answer 1

Given data:

* The mass of the ball is m = 5 kg.

* The height of the ball is h = 12 m.

Solution:

The potential energy of the ball is,

`U=\text{mgh}`

where g is the acceleration due to gravity,

Substituting the known values,

`\begin{gathered} U=5*9.8*12 \\ U=588\text{ J} \end{gathered}`

Thus, the potential energy of the ball is 588 J