Question

Suppose a 350-g kookaburra (a large kingfisher bird) picks up a 75-g snake and raises it 2.5 m from the ground to a branch. (a) How much work did the bird do on the snake? (b) How much work did it do to raise its own center of mass to the branch?How much work did the bird do on the snake?

A. {Work} = 8.53 , {J}
B. {Work} = 9.81 , {J}
C. {Work} = 10.75 , {J}
D. {Work} = 12.50 , {J}

Answer 1

The work done by the kookaburra on the snake is approximately 1.83 J, and the work done to raise its own center of mass to the branch is 8.58 J. None of the provided multiple-choice options accurately represent the work done on the snake.

Step-by-step explanation:

The student's question pertains to the work done by a kookaburra as it lifts a snake and its own center of mass to a branch. To calculate the work done by the bird on the snake, we use the equation Work = force x displacement = mass x gravity x height. In this case, the work done on the snake (a) will be 75g (0.075 kg) x 9.81 m/s2 x 2.5 m which gives us 1.84 Joules or approximately 1.83 J when rounded to two decimal places.

To find out the work done to raise the bird's own center of mass (b), we apply the same formula with the bird's mass: 350g (0.35 kg) x 9.81 m/s2 x 2.5 m which results in 8.58 J.

Therefore, the answers are (a) approximately 1.83 J, and (b) 8.58 J. This clarifies that none of the provided options A through D correctly correspond to the work done on the snake. They all exceed the correctly calculated value.