You ride your bicycle down a hill, maintaining a constant speed the entire time.

1. As you ride, does the gravitational potential energy of the Earth-bike-rider system increase, decrease, or stay the same?

2. Does the kinetic energy of you and your bike increase, decrease, or stay the same?

3. Has the mechanical energy of this system increased, decreased, or remained the same?

1 answer

gpe decreases as you go down. It is max at the top of the hill.