The diagram shows a car and passengers at the start of a roller coaster ride at an amusement park. An electric motor pulls the car from A to B at a steady speed. The total mass of the car and passengers is 9500 kg. Calculate the amount of work done on the car and passengers. [Gravitational field strength, g = 10 N/kg]

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The diagram shows a car and passengers at the start of a roller coaster ride at an amusement park - Edexcel - GCSE Physics - Question 3 - 2016 - Paper 1

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The diagram shows a car and passengers at the start of a roller coaster ride at an amusement park. An electric motor pulls the car from A to B at a steady speed. T... show full transcript

Worked Solution & Example Answer:The diagram shows a car and passengers at the start of a roller coaster ride at an amusement park - Edexcel - GCSE Physics - Question 3 - 2016 - Paper 1

Step 1

Calculate the potential energy (PE)

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Answer

To find the work done on the car and passengers, we calculate the potential energy gained as they are raised from point A to point B. The formula for gravitational potential energy is:

$PE = m imes g imes h$

where:

$m$ is the mass (9500 kg)
$g$ is the gravitational field strength (10 N/kg)
$h$ is the height gained (18 m)

Substituting the values gives:

$PE = 9500 imes 10 imes 18$ $PE = 1710000 ext{ J}$

Step 2

Convert Joules to kilojoules

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Answer

As the question requires the work done in kilojoules, we convert the energy from joules to kilojoules:

$1710000 ext{ J} = 1710 ext{ kJ}$

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