Question

In his homework, Dale is asked to describe the energy of a cat sitting in a window. Dale writes that the cat has potential energy because of its distance from the ground. His teacher responds that his description is not wrong, but that it could be better. How could Dale improve his answer?

Answer 1

Dale could remember that potential energy is a property of systems, not objects. The cat does not have gravitational potential energy. There is gravitational potential energy in the cat-Earth system. From there, he might want to improve things by pointing out that the actual value of the gravitational potential energy in this system is arbitrary, since it is measured with respect to an arbitrary reference configuration of the system, with the cat and the Earth in a particular relationship to each other. But the arbitrariness of the value doesn't matter, as only changes in the system's gravitational potential energy have real physical effects (such as a change.

Answer 2

Thank you so so much ! thank you

Answer 3

np :)

Answer 4

iam sorry @doubledrive i cant understand the last part of ur explanation.please help me.thanks in advance