If you drop a piece of ice on a hard surface, the energy | StudySoup

Textbook Solutions for Conceptual Physics

Chapter 17 Problem 6P

Question

If you drop a piece of ice on a hard surface, the energy of impact will melt some of the ice. The higher it drops, the more ice will melt upon impact. Show that to completely melt a block of ice that falls without air drag, it should ideally be dropped from a height of 34 km. [?Hint: Equate the joules of gravitational potential energy to the product of the mass of ice and its heat of fusion (in SI units, 335,000 J/kg). Do you see why the answer doesn’t depend on mass?]

Solution

Step 1 of 3

We know that

We can rearrange the equation in terms of

We get

Latent heat of fusion of ice

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full solution

Title Conceptual Physics 12 
Author Paul G. Hewitt
ISBN 9780321909107

If you drop a piece of ice on a hard surface, the energy

Chapter 17 textbook questions

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