Work and Power Lab

Work & Power

In Lab 5 involves walking up a flight of stairs and recording your time via a stopwatch or chronograph. You will be asked to make measurements and calculations for the total time to work the flight of stairs (at least 7 steps) and the vertical height of the stairs from the bottom to the top. 

The lab details follow:

Purpose:  Determine your work and power as you climb a flight of stairs.

Materials:  Yardstick, a stopwatch or digital/analog watch, bathroom scale, calculator, and you, the climber

Procedure: 

• Estimate your mass in kg (Hint: 1 kg (mass) = 2.2 pounds (weight)).
• You should approach the bottom step of the stairs with a steady speed.
• You are to start the time as you reach the first stair and stop the clock when you reach the top

Observations and Data:

• Calculate the work and power for you to climb the flight of stairs
• Work (you) = _____; power (you) = ________
• Calculate your power in kilowatts: (P(kW) = _____.

Application:

• Your local electric company supplies you with 1 kW of power for 1 hour for 8 cents.  Assume that you could climb these stairs continuously for 1 hour.  How much money would this climb be worth?  $_________