A racehorse is running at 42 miles per hour, equivalent to 18.8 meters per second. The horse and it's jockey have a combined mass of 512 kilograms. How much kinetic energy do they have?

1 answer

To calculate the kinetic energy (KE) of the racehorse and its jockey, we can use the formula for kinetic energy:

\[ KE = \frac{1}{2} mv^2 \]

where:

  • \( m \) is the mass (in kilograms),
  • \( v \) is the velocity (in meters per second).

Given:

  • \( m = 512 \) kg (mass of the horse and jockey),
  • \( v = 18.8 \) m/s (velocity of the horse).

Now, we can substitute the values into the formula:

\[ KE = \frac{1}{2} \times 512 , \text{kg} \times (18.8 , \text{m/s})^2 \]

First, calculate \( (18.8 , \text{m/s})^2 \):

\[ (18.8)^2 = 353.44 , \text{m}^2/\text{s}^2 \]

Now, substitute this back into the kinetic energy formula:

\[ KE = \frac{1}{2} \times 512 \times 353.44 \]

Calculating \( \frac{1}{2} \times 512 \):

\[ \frac{1}{2} \times 512 = 256 \]

Now, multiply \( 256 \) by \( 353.44 \):

\[ KE = 256 \times 353.44 \approx 90404.16 \]

Therefore, the kinetic energy of the racehorse and its jockey is approximately \( 90404.16 \) joules.

Rounding to an appropriate precision, we can state:

\[ \boxed{90404 , \text{J}} \]

as the kinetic energy.