Question

One person says that potential energy of a particular book kept in an almrah is 20 J and other says it is 30J . Is one of them necessarily wrong? Give reasons.

Answer 1

Answer ⇒ No.

Explanation ⇒

We know that the Potential energy is dependent upon the chosen configuration. One is free to choose the zero Potential energy configuration since, the origin is choose arbitrarily.

Hence, the Potential energy is depending upon the chosen configuration.

In the Given case, It may be Possible that both the Person have chosen different configuration.

Hence, No one of them is wrong.

Hope it helps.