A coffee mug sits on a window sill of an apartment window 20 meters off the ground. The cat that lives in the apartment jumps onto the window sill and knocks the mug out of the window, causing the mug to fall toward the ground outside.
1. Before the cat hits the mug, what type of energy does the mug have?
Before the cat hits the mug, the mug has potential energy.
As the mug is falling, what is happening to its energy?
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1 point
As the mug is falling, its potential energy is being converted into kinetic energy.
At what position does the coffee mug have the greatest kinetic energy?
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The coffee mug has the greatest kinetic energy just before it hits the ground.
4. The coffee mug has a mass of 350 grams. If the cat had also knocked a 2000 gram brick from the window sill, how would the kinetic energy of the brick compare to the kinetic energy of the coffee mug as they both got close to the ground?
The kinetic energy of both the brick and the coffee mug just before hitting the ground would be the same (assuming they were dropped from the same height). While the brick has a higher mass, kinetic energy is not directly dependent on mass in this scenario. Both objects are subject to the same gravitational acceleration and fell from the same height, so they would have the same kinetic energy just before hitting the ground.
6. When does the cup have the greatest potential energy?
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is it before it falls or after