Question

Conservation of energy In the examples you have examined in this lab, as the coaster travels down the track its gravitational potential energy decreases, and its kinetic energy increases. At any point along the path of the coaster, the potential energy plus the kinetic energy add up to the same value. In the absence of friction and air resistance, we find that the total energy (kinetic plus potential) stays the same. For this reason, physicists call the total energy a conserved quantity, We can choose a reference height and define the potential energy of the earth-coaster system at that point to be zero. We can then define the potential energy at every point at height has PE-mgh, where h is the height of the coaster above our reference height. 5.1 The coaster picture from section 2 is reproduced below. We start by defining the gravitational potential energy as zero at the release height. - Reference height PE-0) — For the coaster at the instant of release at point A, the potential energy is zero (since we have defined it to be zero at that point, and the kinetic energy is zero also (since the coaster is not yet moving). So the total energy of the coaster is zero. As long as there are no losses of energy to other forms through friction etc., the total energy for our coaster will remain zero.

Answer 1