Question

A student drops a 350 g rock in a 500 g rock into a pool from a weight of 8 m which statement about the investigation is accurate A The 500 gram rock causes a smaller splash because it has more mass B The 350 gram rock causes a smaller splash because it has more kinetic energy C The 350 g rock cause a larger splash because it has less mass D The 500 gram rock causes the largest splash because it has more connect energy

Answers

GPT-4o mini
To analyze the situation of the rocks being dropped into the pool, we need to consider the factors that influence the splashes: mass and kinetic energy.

1. Both rocks are being dropped from the same height (8 m), so they will both have the same potential energy at the start, which is converted to kinetic energy as they fall.
2. The kinetic energy (KE) just before they hit the water can be calculated using the formula \( KE = \frac{1}{2} mv^2 \), where \( m \) is mass and \( v \) is the velocity just before impact.

Since they are dropped from the same height, both rocks will have the same velocity at the moment of impact due to gravitational acceleration. Therefore, the kinetic energy just before impacting the water will be proportional to their mass.

Now, let's examine the options:

A. **The 500 gram rock causes a smaller splash because it has more mass.**
- This is incorrect. More mass generally results in a larger splash, not a smaller one.

B. **The 350 gram rock causes a smaller splash because it has more kinetic energy.**
- This is incorrect. The 350 g rock does not have more kinetic energy than the 500 g rock since kinetic energy is proportional to mass.

C. **The 350 g rock causes a larger splash because it has less mass.**
- This is incorrect. A rock with less mass will likely cause a smaller splash compared to a heavier rock.

D. **The 500 gram rock causes the largest splash because it has more kinetic energy.**
- This is correct. The 500 g rock has more mass and thus more kinetic energy at impact, leading to a larger splash.

Therefore, the accurate statement about the investigation is:

**D. The 500 gram rock causes the largest splash because it has more kinetic energy.**