What is the potential energy of an object that has a mass of 5 kg and is on a shelft that is 2 m high?

Question

mani_jha · Answer

Do you know the formula for potential energy of an object?

kainui · Answer

Potential energy is just a specific type of energy, but it can be calculated the same way as regular energy, the work formula. Work is just what we call the amount of energy done, and the unit is the Joule. The Joule is the same thing as a newton*meter, which is exactly what the formula looks like!

Work is just a force over a distance. W=Fd
What is the force of an object in terms of potential energy? Well, it means the potential of it to fall to the earth, and we know the force of an object under gravity is just mass times acceleration due to gravity. So, mg=F. The distance above the ground is the height, so we can call the d=h in the formula. Plug it all in and we have: W=mgh.

Usually we give potential energy the variable U, so U=mgh is our formula!

Think you got it from there?

anonymous · Answer

Gravitational Potential Energy (Ugrav) = mgh
= (5 x 9.8 x 2)
= 98