Question

You’ve climbed to the top of a telephone pole. As you reach it, the pole breaks at the base. (a) What energies are present initially ? (b) What energies are present at the final moment you fall with the pole? If instead you were to let go the pole the moment it broke, would your responses change?

Answer 1

The energy possessed initially , when we are at the top of the telephone pole is the gravitational potential energy which is there due to the height reached by us at the top of the pole.

The energy at the final moment is the kinetic energy ( the same potential energy is now being converted into kinetic energy).

If we jump before the pole got broke our responses would have been same. The potential energy would still be there due to the height that we have climbed and the kinetic energy would still have been there bcoz of the jump that we have made in order to skip the fall from the pole.