How much work would it take to push a 25 kg 25kg weight up a 15 m 15m plane that is at an incline of pi / 6 π6?

1 Answer
Dec 14, 2015

1800 "J"1800J

Explanation:

Let's look at the situation in terms of energy. At the bottom of the incline, the weight has zero potential energy. At the top, the weight will have gravitational potential energy mghmgh.

Assuming we have a fairly greasy weight or surface (such that friction is negligible) we can state that the work done by you in pushing the weight up the incline will be converted entirely into gravitational potential energy.

mgh = 25 "kg" * 9.81 m/s^2 * 15 m * sin(pi/6) = 1839.375 "J"mgh=25kg9.81ms215msin(π6)=1839.375J

Considering that we should only have two significant digits our final answer will be

1800 "J"1800J