Question

When a person climbs a hill, he possesses:
A. Only Kinetic energy
B. Only Potential energy
C. Both Kinetic energy and Potential energy
D. None of the above

Answer 1

Energy in a body came due to its state of motion, if a body is moving with some speed which is body is in motion it’s called that body have some Kinetic energy and when a body remains at rest or have a restoring energy, this is called potential energy.

Complete answer:
Let us examine the whole situation when a person climbs: when a person climbs a hill, he must have some velocity needed to move which is a state of motion and due to this velocity the person must have some form of kinetic energy and mathematically its written as,
$K.E = \dfrac{1}{2}m{v^2}$
where, $m$ is the mass of the person and $v$ is the velocity with which he moves.

So, it’s sure that a person possesses Kinetic energy. Also, when a person climbs hill he is moving against the gravity and due to the increase in distance between ground level and rise in height person also possesses Potential energy which is written as
$P.E = mgh$
Where, $g$ is the acceleration due to gravity and $h$ is the height up to which a person climbs from ground level.

Hence, the correct option is C.

Note: It should be remembered that since person climbs the hill he is moving against the direction of acceleration due to gravity so the Potential energy of person will be taken as negative in mathematical formulation and the value of acceleration due to gravity is constant on earth’s surface and has a magnitude of $g = 9.8m{\sec ^{ - 2}}$.