Potential vs Kinetic Energy Help

Join the discussion
Ask a follow-up here, or get your own question answered by working scientists, mathematicians and engineers — people, not an autocomplete.
Real named experts · corrections over time · the nuance an AI answer skips
1 replies · 2K views
pinkvoid
Messages
1
Reaction score
0
SO I am writing this fortran 95 program and the problem statement is the following:

-Calculate the potential energy, kinetic energy, and total energy when a ball with an
initial velocity of 0 is dropped from a 100 m building.



KE = 1/2mv^2
PE = mgh
v = (2gh)^(1/2)


The main issue I am having is the fact that the problem never gave a mass. I know
that from the law of conservation of energy that I can set KE=PE and cancel out the
masses. However this doesn't really get me anywhere. So far I have calculated all of
my velocities that I need. But now I am stuck. Unless there is some super easy way to
solve this and I just don't see it...

mgh=(1/2)mv^2

gh=(1/2)v^2 <=== This doesn't get me anywhere though
 
on Phys.org
[tex]mgh = \frac{1}{2}mv^{2} \rightarrow v = \sqrt{2gh}[/tex]

Take the square root of both sides. =)