Question

The world record for pole vaulting is 6.15 m. If the pole faulter's gravitational potential is 4,942 J. What is his mass?

Answer 1

The gravitational potential is given by:

`U=mgh`

where m is the mass, g is the acceleration of gravity and h is the height.

In this case we know the potential is 4942 J, the height is 6.15 m and the gravitational acceleration is 9.8 m/s^2; plugging this values in the equation above and solving for the mass we have:

`\begin{gathered} 4942=(9.8)(6.15)m \\ m=(4942)/((9.8)(6.15)) \\ m=82 \end{gathered}`

Therefore, the mass of the faulter is 82 kg