How high could 10800 Newtons lift an 80000 pound semi truck and what formulas would I use to figure this out?

Answer 1

First, you must understand that newtons is a measure of force, and you are asking a question about the total amount of work. Assuming you meant Newton-meters, not newtons, here is how to solve it:

1. Convert everything into metric units

2. Perform an energy balance on the initial and final state of the truck

3. make simplifying assumptions about gravity being constant, and kinetic energy being zero at the beginning and end of the problem, otherwise you have to use calculus

the final equation should look something like:

Potential Energy(Final)-PotentialEnergy(Initial)=Work (done on the system)

and Potential energy =mgh/gc.

4. Solve for h.

your teacher will probably have some convention that he wants you to follow about which terms to put into the equation and in which order, but you have to pay attention in class to find that out!

make sure to carry your units through every step. Over the course of the next few years you will find more errors this way than any other.