Question

read the text about an object in motion.
in a locker room, a softball was sitting in the middle of a level bench. isaiah bumped the bench and the softball rolled toward the edge. then, the softball fell off the bench, hit the ground, and rolled quickly along the flat floor of the locker room. isaiah tried to grab the ball, but he could not reach it before it rolled underneath some lockers.
when was the most gravitational potential energy stored between the softball and earth? assume that the softballs mass did not change.
when the ball was sitting in the middle of the bench
when the ball was about to hit the locker room floor
when the ball was rolling quickly toward the lockers

Explanation:

Gravitational potential energy \(U = mgh\) (where \(m\) is mass, \(g\) is acceleration due to gravity, \(h\) is height). When the softball was on the bench, its height \(h\) relative to the floor was the greatest. Since \(m\) (mass) and \(g\) (constant near Earth's surface) did not change, the gravitational potential energy was the highest when \(h\) was the largest.

Answer:

when the ball was sitting in the middle of the bench