Work-Kinetic Energy Theorem Name:

Determine if work is being done by the bolded force in each situation below, and what type of energy is being
changed.

Situation Is physics work What type of

being done? energy is changing?
1. A cable is attached to a bucket and the force of tension is used to pull the
bucket out of a well.
2. Rusty Nales uses a hammer to exert an applied force upon a stubborn nail
to drive it into the wall.
3. Near the end of the Shockwave ride, a braking system exerts an applied
force upon the coaster car to bring it to a stop.
4. The force of friction acts upon a baseball player as he slides into third base.
5. A busy spider hangs motionless from a silk thread, supported by
the tension in the thread.
6. In baseball, the catcher exerts an abrupt applied force upon the ball to stop
it in the catcher's mitt.
7. In a physics lab, an applied force is exerted parallel to a plane inclined at
30-degrees in order to displace a cart up the incline.
8. A pendulum bob swings from its highest position to its lowest position
under the influence of the force of gravity.
Fill in the blank for each of the statements below.
9. Alastair does 165 J of work lifting a box until it has ______ J of gravitational potential energy.
10. Benedict pushes a box, doing 104 J of work until it slides across the floor with ______ J of kinetic energy.
11. Charlotte pushes a ball across the floor, doing 47J of work. It hits the wall with 38 J of kinetic energy after _____ J of
work are done by friction.
12. 882 J of total mechanical energy can do _______ J of work if it will lose 454 J of energy to friction.
13. 151 J of kinetic energy and ______ J of work can create 491 J of spring potential energy.
14. 654 J of work and 160 J of thermal energy can become 525 J of potential energy and _____ J of kinetic energy.

Complete the following work-energy bar charts based on the given statement. Then cross out or cancel any terms in
the work-energy equation that are either zero or the same on each side.

15. A ball is lifted from the bottom shelf of a
book case at a height of 0.2 m to the top
shelf of the book case at 1.7 m high.
Ignore the force of friction acting on the
ball.
16. A car skids from a high speed to a stop with its brakes
applied. The initial state is the car traveling at a high
speed and the final state is the car at rest. The force of
friction does work on the car, thus changing the total
mechanical energy.
17. A skier starts from rest on top of hill A and skis into
the valley and back up onto hill B. The skier utilizes her
poles to propel herself across the snow, thus doing
work to change her total mechanical energy. The
initial state is on top of hill A and the final state is on
top of hill B. Ignore frictional forces.
18. A moving cross-country skier skis from the top of a hill
down into a valley and up a second smaller hill. The
initial state is the skier in motion on top of the first hill
and the final state is the skier in motion on top the
second hill. He uses his poles to propel himself. Ignore
the effect of friction and air resistance.

For the following questions, begin with the work-energy equation, cancel terms, substitute and solve
19. A glider is gliding through the air at a height of 416 meters with a speed of 45.2 m/s. The glider dives to a height of
278 meters. Determine the glider's new speed.

20. A 4768-kg roller coaster train full of riders approaches the loading dock at a speed of 17.1 m/s. It is abruptly
decelerated to a speed of 2.2 m/s over a distance of 13.6 m. Determine the retarding force that acts upon the roller
coaster cars.

21. A catcher's mitt recoils a distance of 12.9 cm in bringing a 142-gram baseball to a stop. If the applied force is 588 N,
then what was the speed of the baseball at the moment of contact with the catcher's mitt?