Question

a 30 kg child climbs up a slide that is 1.8 m tall and angled at 45 degrees. she starts from rest, and her speed at the bottom of the slide is measured to be 3.0 m/s. ignore air drag but not sliding friction. ignore friction for now. complete energy bar charts for the girl at the top of the slide, and then at the bottom. what speed would you expect the girl to have if the slide was frictionless?

Answer 1

The girl has potential energy at the top of the slide and both potential and kinetic energy at the bottom. If the slide was frictionless, her potential energy at the top would be converted into kinetic energy at the bottom, resulting in a higher speed.

Step-by-step explanation:

The girl at the top of the slide has potential energy and no kinetic energy. Since she starts from rest, the energy bar chart shows that all of her energy is potential energy. At the bottom of the slide, she has both potential and kinetic energy. The energy bar chart shows that her potential energy reduces as she slides down, while her kinetic energy increases.

If the slide was frictionless, the girl would conserve her mechanical energy, and her total mechanical energy at the bottom of the slide would be the same as at the top. This means that her potential energy at the top would be converted into kinetic energy at the bottom, resulting in a higher speed. However, without more information, we cannot determine the exact speed.