64 Solutions and Tests for Exploring Creation With Physics

When the roller coaster is at the top of the next hill, it will have both potential and kinetic
energy. The potential energy will be given by:

meters
PE = mgh = (m) (9.8 (40.0 meters)
sec 2

The kinetic energy will be given by:

KE mv2
2

At any point in the journey, the sum of the potential and kinetic energies must equal our original
expression for the total energy. Thus, the sum of the two equations above must equal the equation we
first determined:

meters meters 1
(m).(9.8 )•(75 meters) = (m).(9.8 2 )(40.0 meters) + —my 2
sec sec 2

Since the mass is in every term of the equation above, it cancels. That allows us to solve for the speed:

meters
(m) . (9.8 2 . (75 meters) = (m) . (9.8 meters
__
) . (40.0 meters) + -1 my 2
sec sec 2

1 , meters meters
- v - (9 8 , ) . (75 meters) - (9.8 ) '(40.0 meters)
2 - sec sec

v - 12-340 meter2 = 26 --
sec sec

At the top of the second hill, the roller coaster car is traveling at 26 mlsec.

4. This problem is much like the roller coaster problem above, but the car actually has some kinetic
energy at the top of the hill. Thus, we need to add potential energy and kinetic energy in order to get
the total energy of the car. Since we know the height of the hill, we can get an expression for the
potential energy:
, ).(1l.5 meters)
PE =mgh =(m)'(9.8 meters
sec

Since we have the car's speed, we can also get an expression for its kinetic energy:

2 1 meters
KE my —.(m).(214 )2
2 2 sec

The car's total energy, then, is the sum of the two: