A skateboarder drops in off the top of one side of the half pipe shown below. She does not push off and starts from rest. She stands straight as she skates down one side and up the other. She expected to get to the top of other side but didn’t make it. The skateboarder recalled the law of conservation of energy from science and didn’t understand why she didn’t make it to the top of the other side.

Question

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Which of the following actions would help the skater reach the top of the other side of the half pipe?

Question 5 options:

Push off at the bottom of the half pipe in order to replace lost energy and add kinetic energy to the skateboard.

Lubricate the wheels in order to reduce frictional force that is causing the skateboard to lose velocity and bend down while skating off the side and bottom of the half pipe.

Hold a weight in order to increase her mass and cause the skateboard to move with a greater velocity down the half pipe.

Sit on the skateboard in order to lower her center of mass and increase the potential energy of the skateboard.

Answer 1

To understand why the skateboarder didn't make it to the top of the other side of the half pipe, we need to consider the conservation of energy principles and the effects of energy losses due to friction and air resistance.

When the skateboarder drops in and starts to move down the half pipe, she converts potential energy at the top into kinetic energy at the bottom. However, as she skates up the other side, energy is converted back into potential energy. If she doesn't make it to the top, it indicates that some energy has been lost due to friction and air resistance, and possibly due to the inelastic nature of the interaction with the half pipe.

Among the options provided, the most effective action to help the skater reach the top of the other side of the half pipe would be:

Push off at the bottom of the half pipe in order to replace lost energy and add kinetic energy to the skateboard.

By pushing off at the bottom of the half pipe, she can increase her kinetic energy, which may help her achieve enough velocity to reach the top of the other side despite energy losses due to friction and air resistance.

The other options either do not directly address the issue of lost energy or would not have the desired effect in improving the skateboarder's reach to the top of the half pipe.