An amusement park ride consists of a slide for which the participants are given a cloth to sit on. The top of the slide is 6.0m high.
a) A 30kg child uses the slide. Determine her speed at the bottom. Make the (unrealistic) assumption that friction can be ignored in this case.

b) A more realistic view would take friction into account. Assume that 80% of the mechanical energy the child has at the top of the slide is converted to heat through the action of friction. Determine the speed of the child at the bottom of the slide in this case.

Question

An amusement park ride consists of a slide for which the participants are given a cloth to sit on. The top of the slide is 6.0m high.
a) A 30kg child uses the slide. Determine her speed at the bottom. Make the (unrealistic) assumption that friction can be ignored in this case.

b) A more realistic view would take friction into account. Assume that 80% of the mechanical energy the child has at the top of the slide is converted to heat through the action of friction. Determine the speed of the child at the bottom of the slide in this case.

anonymous · Answer

(a) in this case, the only force acting is gravitational which is a conservative force. so mechanical energy is conserved. potential energy of the child at the top of slide is equal to kinetic energy of child at the bottom. write the expression and solve it.

anonymous · Answer

(b) as 80% of potential energy is converted into heat energy, the remaining 20% is converted into kinetic energy. use this concept and solve.