Question

A skier is gliding along at 1.13 m/s on horizontal, frictionless snow. He suddenly starts down a 13.1° incline. His speed at the bottom is 18.8 m/s. What is the length of the incline?

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Use his change in kinetic energy to get his loss of potential energy. The equation
g H = change in (V^2)/2
can be used to het the height change, H.

H and the slope angle can be used to get the length L of the incline.

H/L = sin 13.1

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My attempt:

H/L = sin 13.1

L = sin13.1 / H
= sin13.1 / 18.8 m/s
= 0.01 km = 10 m

Why is this answer incorrect?

Answer 1

Your equation L = sin13.1 / 18.8 m/s
is totally wrong. You cannot have a length on one side of an equation and 1/Velocity on the other side. It is not even dimensionally correct. You did not follow the method suggested. Where did the L = 0.01 km come from?

The change in V^2/2 is (18.8^2 - 1.13^2)/2 = 176.1 m^2/s^2

That equals the change in gH

The change in H is therefore
176.1 m^2/s^2 / 9.8 m/s^2 = 18.0 m

Answer 2

This answer still shows up as incorrect