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At that speed, its kinetic energy would be quite a bit more than its previous potential energy.To solve this, assume that all the potential energy will be converted to kinetic energy. Replace the energy and the mass into the equation for kinetic energy, and solve for speed.

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6y ago
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6y ago

Simple! It is because the calculation which led you to the answer 10 ms-1 was wrong.

Gravitational potential energy = mgh = 500, where m is the mass = 100 kg, g is the acceleration due to gravity and h is the height.

m = 100 kg => gh = 5.


Using the equations of motion,

v2 - u2 = 2gh (2as in standard "SUVAT" terms)

where u is the initial velocity (= 0 ms-1) and v is the final velocity.


Therefore v2 - 0 = 2*5 = 10

So it is v2 which is 10, not v. (The superscript 2 is not simply for decoration!)

and therefore v = 3.1623, approx.

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6y ago

The velocity is the square root of (2 PE/m) where PE = 500 and m = 100; that is the square root of 10 or 3.16 m/sec

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Q: How won't the answer be 10m per sec. A 100kg box is sitting on top of a shelf and has 500J of gravitational potential energy. if the box were to fall off the shelf what its velocity be?
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