Question

1. A 10 kg sack of grain is hoisted to a storage room 50 m above the ground floor of a grain elevator.
a) What is the increase in potential energy of the sack of grain at this height? PE = mgh

Answer 1

The increase in potential energy is:

$$PE = mgh$$

where $m = 10kg$ is the mass of grain, $h = 50m$ is the height, and $g = 9.8m/s^2$ is the gravitational acceleration. Thus, obtain:

$$PE = 10kg\cdot 9.8m/s^2\cdot 50m = 4900\space J$$

Answer. 4900 J.