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a girl pushes herself up a steep ramp in her wheelchair. She gains a vertical distance of 25.8m when she reaches the top of the ramp. She turns around and coasts back down the ramp. If the combined mass of the girl and her wheelchair is 64.6kg, what would be her coasting speed at the bottom of the ramp?

User Abraham Gnanasingh
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1 Answer

20 votes
20 votes

Answer:

Below

Step-by-step explanation:

Her POTENTIAL energy , mgh , is converted to KINETIC energy , 1/2 mv^2

mgh = 1/2 mv^2 You can divide through by 'm' to get:

gh = 1/2 v^2 solve for 'v'

v = sqrt (2gh)

= sqrt ( 2 * 9.81 * 25.8) = 22.5 m/s

( NOTE that her mass, 64.6 kg , is irrelevant)

User Wristbands
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