Let's go biking
Classical Mechanics
Level
1
Bicycling to the top of a mountain is much harder than rolling back down to the bottom. At which place do you have the most gravitational potential energy?
At the bottom of the mountain.
Between the top and the bottom of the mountain.
None of these.
At the top of the mountain.
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1 solution
Bicycling up the mountain is hard because you must do work against the force of gravity. This work is stored as an increasing gravitational potential energy on your way uphill. Gravity then does work on you as you roll downhill and your gravitational potential energy decreases.