Question

A boy is trying to roll a bowling ball up a hill, as shown in the image below. Iffriction is ignored, what is the minimum initial velocity that the ball must havefor it to reach the top of the hill? (Recall that g = 9.8 m/s2)225 m

Answer 1

As the ball rolls up the hill, the kinetic energy of the ball will transform into gravitational potential energy.

The minimum initial velocity that the ball must have to reach the top of the hill is the velocity that would give the ball the same kinetic energy as the potential energy that it would have if it is placed at rest at the top of the hill.

The kinetic energy (K) of an object with speed