why do a plastic ball and an iron ball kept at the same height have different potential energies?
Answers
Potential height is fully dependent on height
As,
P.E= Mgh
Answer:
Ignoring air resistance both objects will accelerate at 9.8m/s^2 due to the acceleration of gravity. Gravity accelerates all objects at the same acceleration independent of mass or size.
However, air resistance can cause a force to counteract the acceleration due to gravity and slow the object down relative to having no air resistance/falling in a vacuum. The formula for air resistance is:
F=1/2pv^2AC>d where p is the fluid density, v is the velocity of the object, A is the cross-sectional area of the object, and C>d is the drag coefficient.
In this problem all variables are going to be the same besides the drag coefficient. The drag coefficient depends on the shape of the object and the surface of the object and since we have two different materials it would make sense that these two different surfaces will have different drag coefficients and therefore will fall at different speeds in air/any fluid.
This is your answer.
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Explanation: