Potential Energy and Conservative Force

Potential Energy and Conservative Force#

Part 1#

A particle is acted on only by a conservative force. If the potential energy of this particle is zero at some point, then:

(Hint: draw a PE versus distance diagram–is there more than one way to satisfy PE = 0, and what does this mean about the conservative force?)

Answer Section#

  • The net force on the particle is also zero.

  • The slope of the force versus position graph is zero at that point.

  • This does not allow us to determine the force at this point, nor the slope of the force versus position graph at this point.

  • The net force on the particle is positive.

  • The net force on the particle is negative.

Attribution#

Problem is licensed under the CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.
The Creative Commons 4.0 license requiring attribution-BY, non-commercial-NC, and share-alike-SA license.