Question

Popeye the sailor man, who has a mass of 85 kg, ran ( at a constant rate ) up a flight of stairs that are 3.55 m high in 6 seconds . How many joules of work did popeye do ?

Answer 1

We are given the following information

Mass of Popeye = 85 kg

Height of stairs = 3.55 m

time = 6 seconds

We are asked to find how much work did Popeye do?

The work done is given by

$W=F\cdot d$

Where F is the force and d is the distance.

For the given case, the force is the weight of the Popeye and the distance is the height of the stairs.

$F=m\cdot g$

Where m is the mass and g is the acceleration due to gravity (9.8 m/s²)

So, the formula becomes

$W=m\cdot g\cdot h$

Let us substitute the given values into the above formula

$\begin{gathered} W=m\cdot g\cdot h \\ W=85\cdot9.8\cdot3.55 \\ W=2957.15\: \text{Joules} \end{gathered}$

Therefore, Popeye has done 2957.15 joules of work.