The superheroine Xanaxa, who has a mass of 69.1 kg, is pursuing the 75.3 kg archvillain Lexlax. She leaps from the ground to the top of a 183 m high building then dives off it and comes to rest at the bottom of a 15.7 m deep excavation where she finds Lexlax and neutralizes him. Does all this bring about a net gain or a net loss of gravitational potential energy? loss or gain? By how much?

Question

Julien Willis

Physics

21 July, 23:29

The superheroine Xanaxa, who has a mass of 69.1 kg, is pursuing the 75.3 kg archvillain Lexlax. She leaps from the ground to the top of a 183 m high building then dives off it and comes to rest at the bottom of a 15.7 m deep excavation where she finds Lexlax and neutralizes him. Does all this bring about a net gain or a net loss of gravitational potential energy? loss or gain? By how much?

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Parrish · Answer 1

Loss of gravitation potential energy.

Change in gravitational potential energy = - 10642.57 J

Explanation:

Starting off with the equation for gravitational potential energy:

gravitational potential energy = Mass x Gravity x Height

Here, we use the total change of height to solve for the potential energy.

The total change in height is - 15.7 m. This is because although our super heroine jumps on top of a 183m building at first. She jumps off and falls into a pit 15.7m deep.

As she is lower into the ground than when she started, she loses gravitational potential energy.

The equation becomes:

g. p. e = 69.1 x 9.81 x (-15.7)

g. p. e = - 10642.57 J