Question

A roller coaster starts at a high peak with 60 J of gravitational potential energy. When it reaches a second peak, it has only 50 J of potential energy. Calculate the difference in energy and explain what happened to it.

Answer 1

10 J

Step-by-step explanation:

The difference in energy between the two peaks is 10 J.

As the roller coaster moves from the first peak to the second peak, it loses 10 J of gravitational potential energy. This energy is converted into other forms of energy, such as kinetic energy (the energy of motion) and thermal energy (the energy of heat).

Some of the gravitational potential energy is converted into kinetic energy as the roller coaster accelerates down the first peak. As it reaches the second peak, some of the kinetic energy is converted back into gravitational potential energy, but not all of it. The difference between the initial and final potential energy represents the energy that was lost or converted into other forms.