Through a rockslide, a 770 kg rock slides from rest down a hillside that is 500 m long and 300 m high. The coefficient of kinetic friction among the rock and the hill surface is 0.29.
a) If the gravitational potential energy U of the rock-Earth system is set to zero at the bottom of the hill, what is the value of U just before the slide?
b) How much energy is transferred to thermal energy through the slide?
c) What is the kinetic energy of the rock as it reaches the bottom of the hill?
d) What is its speed then?