Everytime I do this problem I get different answers eachtime. A 55 kg engineer l

Question

Everytime I do this problem I get different answers eachtime. A 55 kg engineer leaves her office on the 33rd floor of askyscraper and takes an elevator to the 59th floor. Later shedescends to the street level. If the engineer takes her office asthe zero for potential energy and if the distance from one floor tothe next is 3.5 m, what is the engineer's potential energy a)in heroffice, b)on the 59th floor, c) at the street. Everytime I do this problem I get different answers eachtime. A 55 kg engineer leaves her office on the 33rd floor of askyscraper and takes an elevator to the 59th floor. Later shedescends to the street level. If the engineer takes her office asthe zero for potential energy and if the distance from one floor tothe next is 3.5 m, what is the engineer's potential energy a)in heroffice, b)on the 59th floor, c) at the street.

Explanation / Answer

Potential Energy = U = mgh At her office, since h is taken as zero here, U = 0 On the 59th floor, h = (59-33)*(3.5 m/floor), m = 55 kg, g = 9.8m/s^2 U = 49,049 J On the street, h = -(33 floors)*(3.5 m/floor), m and g are thesame, so U = -62,254.5 J Or at least that's what my calculator gave me :) Hope I helped!

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