A novice skier, starting from rest, slides down a frictionless 33.0° incline whose vertical height is 120 m...

Question

A novice skier, starting from rest, slides down a frictionless 33.0° incline whose vertical height is 120 m. How fast is she going when she reaches the bottom? Help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

Answer 1

Conservation of energy with no friction to complicate matters...

Initial energh: mgh
Final energy: 1/2 m v²

Set them equal, cancel the masses, plug in 120 m for the height and 9.8 m/s² for g, and solve for the final velocity. It will be ridiculously fast for a novice skier.