Q. 21. A freely falling object eventually stops on reaching the ground. What happens to its kinetic energy?
When an object is falling from a height, there is an increase in the kinetic energy of the object. Thus just before hitting the ground the kinetic energy of the object is very high. But after hitting the ground its velocity comes to zero and thus the kinetic energy becomes zero. The kinetic energy is transformed into other forms of energy such as heat, sound or some deformation on the ground.