Interactive Simulator · Energy Drop

From Height to Speed

Lift an object and you store gravitational potential energy, mass times gravity times height. Let it fall and that store pours into kinetic energy until, just before landing, all of it has converted. Setting the two equal gives a landing speed of the square root of two times gravity times height. The mass cancels, so a heavy ball and a light ball from the same height land at the same speed.

Mission Choose a drop height so the object lands at 12 m/s. Round 1Streak 0Best 0
A heavier ball from the same height lands:
potential energy m g h196 J
kinetic energy ½ m v²0 J
landing speed √(2 g h)14.0 m/s
m g h = ½ m v², the mass cancels, so v = √(2 g h).