Application

1. Compare the work that you do when you go upstairs to the work you do in going
downstairs. Based on this, can you explain why it is more difficult to go upstairs than
downstairs?
When climbing stairs, the force of gravity is attracting the person towards earth due to
which he needs to apply more force than the gravity to go upstairs. While coming
downstairs he has to apply less energy because he is already moving in the direction of
force which is coming from gravity and that's why its harder to climb stairs while easy to
come downstairs
2. A certain professor finds it easy to go upstairs from the ground floor of the main building
by going up to the second floor using the main stairs, walking along the corridor of the
accounting division and using the side stairs to go to the third floor. Is there a basis to
this from the point of view of Physics?
Power is the rate of doing work. It takes exactly the same amount of work to raise the
professor from the first floor to the third whether he takes it in one long flight of stairs or
two shorter flights of stairs. If the professor's body is modeled by a not-very-efficient
motor which can put out enough power to raise itself through one flight of stairs at an
acceptable pace and then needs a period of rest to remove combustion products and
renew energy supplies before assailing the second set of stairs. His stroll down the
accounting corridor (where the amount of work equals only the amount needed to
overcome internal and external friction) may be just the ticket needed to get him to the
top of the second flight of stairs without feeling completely spent and requiring several
minutes of no-work-at-all to recover enough to do his usual labors.

3. It is 5 minutes before your 7:00 AM class in the fourth floor and you are still in the ground
floor. Will you run or walk upstairs in order not to be late? Assume that your power output
is 15 watts and 20 watts when walking and running, respectively. The vertical distance
between the ground floor and the fourth floor is 12m and that you weigh 750N.
To run up 12 m stairs in 5 minutes weighing 750N requires a minimum power of
work/time. We get 11250 J, the amount of work to be done, by multiplying the weight to
the distance. Now in order to get the minimum amount of power, we divide the amount of
work to be done by the time given. And power needed to get up in 5 minutes is
11250/300 = 37.5 watt. Thus, you can't run that fast to produce that power
4. An object is thrown vertically up. Neglecting air resistance, how is the change in the
potential energy of the object related the change in its kinetic energy?
When an object is thrown straight into the air, initially, all of its energy is kinetic. As it
goes up, the kinetic energy decreases and the potential energy increases at the same
rate. At the highest point, the object has only potential energy, and it is equal to the initial
kinetic energy. As the object drops, the kinetic energy increases and the potential energy
decreases until it hits the ground.

Conclusion
From the results obtained, both the amount of work and power output in going up is
greater than in going down. This means that it takes more work and power when going
upstairs because going upstairs is actually a movement that is against gravity. Thus, it
requires greater amount force so that it would make the movement possible. On the
second experiment we have done, we obtained results showing that the total mechanical
energy remain constant as the ball moves up or down. The mechanical energy
throughout the experiment stayed the same, with no energy being lost or gained. When
the ball was tossed up vertically, the kinetic energy was converted to potential energy
and when it reaches its maximum height as it begins its descent, the potential energy
begins to be converted back to kinetic energy. It gives us the same amount of
mechanical energy.