Work, Energy and Power
Work
is done when a force moves an object through a particular distance. The amount of work thatis done is the amount of energy that has been transferred.
Energy
, then, is like the “currency” used in order to perform work. If you want to do 30
J
of work youmust spend 30
J
of energy.
Power
is the rate at which work is done, or the rate at which energy is transferred.
Work Done
There are two formulae for work done.
W
= ∆
E
(1)
W
= Work Done (in Joules,
J
)∆
E
= amount of energy transferred (in Joules,
J
)
W
=
Fs
(2)
F
= Force (in Newtons,
N
)
s
= distance moved in direction of force (in metres,
m
)Note that
s
is the distance moved
in the direction of
the force – you normally need to do someresolving in order to get both the distance and the force in the same direction. For this reason, thisequation is often quoted as
W
=
Fs
cos
θ
, where
θ
is the angle betwen
F
and
s
.
Energy
Energy comes in many forms:
gravitational potential energy
(
GPE
),
kinetic energy
(
KE
),
thermal energy
,
chemical energy
,
nuclear energy
,
electrical energy
,
elastic energy
, ...The SI unit for energy is the
Joule
,
J
.
Kinetic Energy, KE
Kinetic Energy is the energy due to movement: the faster an object is travelling the more kineticenergy it has. Imagine accelerating an object from rest (
u
= 0) to a velocity
v
. We can use twoequations of motion,
s
=12(
u
+
v
)
t
=12
vt
And
a
=
v
−
ut
=
vt
Using
N2L
,
F
=
ma
=
mvt
Then, by equation 2,
W
=
Fs
=
mvt
×
12
vt
=12
mv
2
Now, because the gain in kinetic energy is due to the work done,
KE
=12
mv
2
(3)
of 00
Work, Energy and Power
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| Upload Date: | 11/27/2009 |
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