Question

Sir Galahad is attacking the castle of Dunkirk. His engineers design a battering ram to
break down the front door of this formidable fortress. If the ram’s mass is 1000kg and the maximum velocity it can attain is 5 m/s, what is the maximum kinetic energy that the ram can apply to the door?

Answer 1

Given - Mass of ram - 1000 kg

Maximum velocity - 5 metre/second

Find - Maximum kinetic energy that ram can apply.

Solution - Maximum kinetic energy that the ram can apply to the door can be calculated by the formula = 1/2*m*v². In the formula, m represents mass and v represents velocity.

Keeping the values in formula -

KE = 1/2*1000*5²

KE = 500*25

KE = 12500 Joule.

Hence, maximum kinetic energy that the ram can apply to the door is 12.5 kJ or 12500 Joule.