How Does Frictionless Slope Affect Acceleration?

[bamfdan]

Sam (85 kg) takes off (from rest) up a 50 m high, 10° frictionless slope on his jet-powered skis. The skis have a thrust of 180 N. He keeps his skis tilted at 10° after becoming airborne.

i understand the whole concept, but i don't understand how to get the acceleration, the frictionless keeps confusing me.

please help me out, it would be greatly appreciated.

 

[tiny-tim]

Welcome to PF!

Sam (85 kg) takes off (from rest) up a 50 m high, 10° frictionless slope on his jet-powered skis. The skis have a thrust of 180 N. He keeps his skis tilted at 10° after becoming airborne.

i understand the whole concept, but i don't understand how to get the acceleration, the frictionless keeps confusing me.

Hi bamfdan! Welcome to PF!

In an exam question like this, "jet-powered" means that there is a constant force that points in the same direction as the skis.

So the acceleration due to the jet-power is in that direction, and is found from F = ma.

"frictionless" means that, while he is still on the slope, the only forces are the jet-power, gravity, and the normal force.

Does that help?