... from the ground what is the potential energy of the acorn
Answers (2)
If you want to study physics you have to stop making spelling mistrakes. The abbreviation for meter is m, not M. The capital M is the abbreviation for "million". So you can see where you can get into a lot of trouble just by using one wrong letter. A program will not tell you that you made a mistake, it will just give you goofy results.
Potential energy can be a lot of things, in different situations. You can get a long explanation of the principals at wikipedia.org
Gravitational potential energy is the product of mass, altitude, and g. In your example that would be 300kg x 2.50m x 9.81m/s^2 = 735.75kg-m^2/s^2
Wow! That is one fat acorn. Scrats would be thrilled to bits ;)
We have an acorn which mass is m = 300kg, and it is in h = 2.5m position in height. If the acceleration of free fall is g = 9.81ms^-2, the weight of the acorn is F = mg. So the total work or energy is
force × displacement = mg × h =
mgh = 300 kg × 9.81 m s^-2 × 2.5 m = 7357.5 kg m^2 s^-2. And as this looks a bit awkward, we say:
7357.5 Nm (Newton metre) or 7357.5 J (Joules).
BTW an acorn typically would be closer to 300 mg, milligrams. The abbreviation for meter is the same as the abbreviation for milli, one thousandth. So again you see the importance of knowing exactly what you are trying to say and spelling it correctly.