Question

1. The tomato is dropped. What is the velocity, v, of the tomato when it hits the ground? Assume 93.9 % of the work done in Part A is transferred to kinetic energy, E, by the time the tomato hits the ground.

v=____m/s <--- this is how the answer is set up

Answer 1

1st case : -
At the top postion, where the tomato is not yet released (i,e before releasing )

At that position, tomato is acted by gravity and the energy is stored as Potential energy (means the energy is stored in the object, here tomato as potential energy )

Potential energy is given by ,

E = PE = m*g*h

where ,

E = total energy (here its mainly potential energy )

PE = potential energy

m = mass

g = acceleration due to gravity

h = height upto which the object is lifted

2nd Case :

when the object is released , the Gravity attracts the object towards itself and the object moves toward it.

Let the object moves with a velocity V

So, we can say that, as the object moves towards the earth (here we have assumed it as earth ) due to gravity , the potential energy stored in the object is converted to kinetic energy ( KE )

we know

Kinetic energy,

according to question , 93.9 % of the total energy ( E ) is converted into kinetic energy

KE = 93.9 % of total energy (E ) = 0.939 * E = 0.939 * PE

as, total energy = potential energy

, g = acceleration due to gravity , for earth g = 9.8 m/s²

m/s

here the whole potential energy is not converted to kinetic energy, it was due to air friction due to dropping of the tomato

We can get the exact answer, if we knoe the height from which it was dropped.

THANK YOU,

If you have any doubt in understanding, please let me know.