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

Textbook Solutions for Conceptual Physics

Chapter 17 Problem 6P

Question

Problem 6P

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

Solution 6E

Introduction

If ice is at a height, it will have some potential energy. If we drop the ice, the potential energy will be converted to the latent heat of the ice and melt the ice.

Now by equating the potential energy and the latent heat of fusion, we can calculate the required height.

Solution

Step 1

Let us consider the mass of the ice is .

Let us also consider that the height through which we have to drop the ice is .

So the potential energy of the ice is .

Where  is the acceleration due to gravity and is given by .

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full solution

Title Conceptual Physics 11 
Author Paul G. Hewitt
ISBN 9780321568090

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

Chapter 17 textbook questions

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