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Conservation Laws
Conservation Laws Benjamin Crowell Book 2 in the Light and Matter series of ...
From karltheking
C
HAPTER
S
IX
W
ORK
, E
NERGY
AND
P
OWER
6.1INTRODUCTION
The terms ‘work’, ‘energy’ and ‘power’ are frequently usedin everyday language. A farmer ploughing the field, a construction worker carrying bricks, a student studying for a competitive examination, an artist painting a beautifullandscape, all are said to be working. In physics, however,the word ‘Work’ covers a definite and precise meaning.Somebody who has the capacity to work for 14-16 hours a day is said to have a large stamina or energy. We admire a long distance runner for her stamina or energy. Energy isthus our capacity to do work. In Physics too, the term ‘energy’is related to work in this sense, but as said above the term‘work’ itself is defined much more precisely. The word ‘power’is used in everyday life with different shades of meaning. Inkarate or boxing we talk of ‘powerful’ punches. These aredelivered at a great speed. This shade of meaning is close tothe meaning of the word ‘power’ used in physics. We shallfind that there is at best a loose correlation between thephysical definitions and the physiological pictures theseterms generate in our minds. The aim of this chapter is todevelop an understanding of these three physical quantities.Before we proceed to this task, we need to develop a mathematical prerequisite, namely the scalar product of two vectors.
6.1.1 The Scalar Product
We have learnt about vectors and their use in Chapter 4.Physical quantities like displacement, velocity, acceleration,force etc. are vectors. We have also learnt how vectors areadded or subtracted. We now need to know how vectors aremultiplied. There are two ways of multiplying vectors which we shall come across : one way known as the scalar product gives a scalar from two vectors and the other known as the vector product produces a new vector from two vectors. Weshall look at the vector product in Chapter 7. Here we takeup the scalar product of two vectors. The scalar product or dot product of any two vectors
A
and
B
, denoted as
A .B
(read
6.1
Introduction
6.2
Notions of work and kineticenergy : The work-energy theorem
6.3
Work
6.4
Kinetic energy
6.5
Work done by a variableforce
6.6
The work-energy theorem for a variable force
6.7
The concept of potentialenergy
6.8
The conservation of mechanical energy
6.9
The potential energy of a spring
6.10
Various forms of energy : thelaw of conservation of energy
6.11
Power
6.12
CollisionsSummary Points to ponder Exercises Additional exercises Appendix 6.1
A
dot
B
) is defined as
A .B
=
A B
cos
θ
(6.1a) where
θ
is the angle between the two vectors asshown in Fig. 6.1a. Since
A, B
and cos
θ
arescalars, the dot product of
A
and
B
is a scalar quantity. Each vector,
A
and
B
, has a direction but their scalar product does not have a direction.From Eq. (6.1a), we have
A .B
=
A
(
B
cos
θ
)=
B
(
A
cos
θ
)Geometrically,
B
cos
θ
is the projection of
B
onto
A
in Fig.6.1 (b) and
A
cos
θ
is the projection of
A
onto
B
in Fig. 6.1 (c). So,
A .B
is the product of the magnitude of
A
and the component of
B
along
A
. Alternatively, it is the product of themagnitude of
B
and the component of
A
along
B
.Equation (6.1a) shows that the scalar product follows the commutative law :
A .B
=
B. A
Scalar product obeys the
distributivelaw
:
A .
(
B
+
C
) =
A .B
+
A .C
Further,
A .
(
λ
B
) =
λ
(
A .B
) where
λ
is a real number. The proofs of the above equations are left to you as an exercise.For unit vectors
i,j,k
we have
iijjkk
⋅=⋅=⋅=
1
ijjkki
⋅=⋅=⋅=
0
Given two vectors
Aijk
=++
AAA
xyz
Bijk
=++
BBB
xyz
their scalar product is
( ) ( )
ˆˆˆˆˆˆ..
xyzxyz
AAABBB
=++++
ABijkijk
=++
ABABAB
xxyyzz
(6.1b)From the definition of scalar product and, (Eq.6.1b) we have :( i )
xxyyzz
AAAAAA
=++
AA
Or,
AAAA
2 x 2 y 2 z 2
=++
(6.1c)since
A . A
= |
A
||
A
| cos 0 =
A
2
.(ii)
A .B
= 0, if
A
and
B
are perpendicular.
Example 6.1
Find the angle between force
F
=
(3 i + 4 j 5 k)
unit and displacement
d
=
(5 i + 4 j + 3 k)
unit. Also find theprojection of
F
on
d
.
Answer
F
.
d
=
xxyyzz
FdFdFd
++
= 3 (5) + 4 (4) + (– 3) (3)= 16 unit Hence
F
.
d
=dcos
F
θ
= 16 unit Now
F
.
F
=
2222
xyz
FFFF
=++
= 9 + 16 + 25= 50 unit and
d
.
d
=
d
2
=
222
xyz
ddd
++
= 25 + 16 + 9= 50 unit
∴
cos
θ
=
1616==0.32505050
,
θ
= cos
–1
0.32
Fig. 6.1
(a)
The scalar product of two vectors
A
and
B
is a scalar :
A .B
= A B
cos
θ
.
(b)
B
cos
θ
is the projection of
B
onto
A
.
(c)
A cos
θ
is the projection of
A
onto
B
.
WORK, ENERGY AND POWER 115
PHYSICS116
known to be proportional to the speed of the drop but is otherwise undetermined.Consider a drop of mass1.00 g falling froma height 1.00 km. It hits the ground witha speed of 50.0 m s
-1
. (a) What is the work done by the gravitational force ? What isthe work done by the unknown resistiveforce?
Answer
(a) The change in kinetic energy of thedrop is
2
102
Km v
Δ=−=
12105050
-3
×××
= 1.25 J where we have assumed that the drop is initially at rest. Assuming that
g
is a constant with a value10 m/s
2
, the work done by the gravitational forceis,
W
g
=
mgh
= 10
-3
×
10
×
10
3
= 10.0 J(b) From the work-energy theorem
gr
K WW
Δ= +
where
W
r
is the work done by the resistive forceon the raindrop. Thus
W
r
=
Δ
K
−
W
g
= 1.25
−
10=
−
8.75 Jis negative.
6.3WORK
As seen earlier, work is related to force and thedisplacement over which it acts. Consider a constant force
F
acting on an object of mass
m
. The object undergoes a displacement
d
in thepositive
x
-direction as shown in Fig. 6.2.
Fig. 6.2
An object undergoes a displacement
d
under the influence of the force
F
.
6.2NOTIONS OF WORK AND KINETICENERGY: THE WORK-ENERGY THEOREM
The following relation for rectilinear motion under constant acceleration
a
has been encounteredin Chapter 3,
v
2
−
u
2
= 2
as
where
u
and
v
are the initial and final speedsand
s
the distance traversed. Multiplying bothsides by
m
/
2
, we have
22
1122
mvmumasFs
−==
(6.2a) where the last step follows from Newton’sSecond Law. We can generalise Eq. (6.1)to three dimensions by employing vectors
v
2
−
u
2
= 2
a.d
Once again multiplying both sides by
m
/
2
, weobtain
22
11..22
mvmum adFd
−==
(6.2b) The above equation provides a motivation for the definitions of work and kinetic energy. Theleft side of the equation is the difference in thequantity ‘half the mass times the square of thespeed’ from its initial value to its final value. Wecall each of these quantities the ‘kinetic energy’,denoted by
K
. The right side is a product of thedisplacement and the component of the forcealong the displacement. This quantity is called‘work’ and is denoted by
W.
Eq. (6.2) is then
K
f
−
K
i
= W
(6.3) where
K
i
and
K
f
are respectively the initial andfinal kinetic energies of the object. Work refersto the force and the displacement over which it acts.
Work is done by a force on the body overa certain displacement
.Equation (6.2) is also a special case of the work-energy (WE) theorem :
The change inkinetic energy of a particle is equal to the work done on it by the net force
. We shallgeneralise the above derivation to a varying forcein a later section.
Example 6.2
It is well known that a raindrop falls under the influence of thedownward gravitational force and theopposing resistive force. The latter is
of 00
ch-6
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