ENGGPHYSICS Physics for Engineers

CHAPTER IV. WORK, POWER AND ENERGY

 WORK
WORK can be defined as transfer of energy. In physics we say that work is done on an object
when you transfer energy to that object. If one object transfers (gives) energy to a second object,
then the first object does work on the second object.

Work is said to be done when a force applied to an object moves that object. We can define
work as an activity involving a movement and force in the direction of the force. Thus work is said to
be done and can be calculated as

W=F×d
Where W = work
F = Force applied
D = displacement of the object
The unit being used for work is Joule (J), equivalent to Newton-meter.

Work done by a force is zero, if

(a) body is not displaced actually, i.e., s = 0
(b) body is displaced perpendicular to the direction of force, i.e., θ = 90°

Sample Problems:
1. The locomotive of a freight train exerts a constant force of 60,000 N on the train while drawing
it at a level track. How much work does it do in a distance of 1 km?
2. A piano mover rolls a 200 kg piano at a constant speed up a ramp 3 m long at an angle of 30o
with the horizontal.
(a) What force does he apply to the piano?
(b) How much work does he do?
3. A factory worker pushes a 40 kg box a distance of 5 m along a level floor at constant speed by
pushing horizontally on it. The coefficient of friction between the box and the floor is 0.25.
(a) What force is required?
(b) How much work does the workman do?
(c) Suppose the workman pushes forward and down at an angle of 30o to the horizontal, what is
the force required? How much work is done by the workman? By the friction force?
4. The old oaken bucket that hangs in the well has a mass of 4 kg. We pull it up a distance of 5 m by
pulling horizontally on a rope passing over a pulley at the top of the well.
(a) How much work do we do in pulling the bucket up?
(b) How much work is done by the gravitational force acting on the bucket?
5. A barrel of mass 120 kg is suspended by a rope 10 m long. (a) What horizontal force is necessary
to hold a barrel in a position displaced sideways 2 m from the vertical? (b) How much work is
done in moving it to this position?

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ENGGPHYSICS Physics for Engineers

 ENERGY
ENERGY is the ability to perform work. Energy can neither be created nor destroyed. It can
only be transformed from one kind to another. The unit of Energy is same as of Work i.e. Joules.
Energy is found in many things and thus there are different types of energy.

There are two types of Energy:

a. The energy in motion is known as Kinetic Energy

Where KE = Kinetic Energy

m = mass of the object
V = velocity of the object

b. Potential Energy is the energy stored in an object and is measured by the amount of work
done.

Where PE = Potential Energy

m = mass of object
g = acceleration due to gravity
h = height

There are other classifications of energy, such as

 Mechanical Energy
It is the sum of potential energy and kinetic energy that is the energy associated with the
motion & position of an object.

 Solar Energy
The light and heat from the sun, harnessed using technologies like, solar heating, photovoltaics,
solar thermal energy, solar architecture, and artificial photosynthesis is known as solar energy. It is
the prime source of renewable energy.

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ENGGPHYSICS Physics for Engineers

 Wind Energy
It is one of the various forms of energy. The energy present in the flow of wind, used by wind
turbines is called wind energy. This energy is a major cheap source to produce electricity. In this
phenomena, the kinetic energy of the wind is converted into mechanical power.

 Nuclear Energy
The energy present in the nucleus of an atom is known as nuclear energy. The particles of an
atom are tiny and need the energy to hold themselves. Nuclear energy is that enormous energy in
the bonds of an atom which helps to hold the atom together. Nuclear energy can be used to make
electricity.

 Geothermal Energy
The energy or heat present inside the Earth is known as geothermal energy. It is a cheap &
convenient heat and power resource and use of this energy don’t have a side effect like greenhouse
gas emission etc.

 Tidal Energy
Tidal energy or tidal power is a form of hydropower (energy present in water), which converts
the energy present in the tides to produce electricity.

 Biomass Energy
Biomass is organic matter obtained from living organisms. The energy produced from biomass is
called biomass energy.

 Electrical Energy
The energy caused by moving electric charges is known as electrical energy. Electric energy is a
type of kinetic energy as the electrical charges moves.

 Thermal Energy
As the name suggests, thermal energy is the energy obtained from heat. It is a microscopic,
disordered equivalent of mechanical energy.

There are two forms of energy sources:

a. Renewable Source of Energy

eg. Solar Energy Geothermal Energy
Wind Energy

b. Non-renewable Source of Energy

eg. Natural Gas Petroleum Products
Coal

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ENGGPHYSICS Physics for Engineers

Sample Problems:
1. Compute the kinetic energy in Joules, of a 2 g rifle bullet travelling at 500 m/s.
2. What is the potential energy of an 800 kg elevator at the top of Empire State Building 380 m
above street level? Assume the potential energy at street level to be zero.
3. A block of mass 8 kg is pushed 5 m along a horizontal frictionless surface by a horizontal force
40 N. The block starts from rest.
a. How much work is done?
b. Check the answer by computing the acceleration of the block, its final velocity and its kinetic
energy.
4. A 12 kg block is pushed 20 m along a sloping surface of a plane inclined at an angle of 370 to the
horizontal by a constant force F of 120 N acting parallel to the plane. The coefficient of friction
between the block and plane is 0.25, and the block starts from rest.
a. What is the work done by the force F?
b. Compute the increase in kinetic energy of the block.
c. Compute the increase in potential energy of the block.
d. Compute the work done by the friction force.
5. 1 2000 kg elevator starts from rest and is pulled upward with constant acceleration of 4 m/s2.
a. Find the tension in the supporting cable?
b. What is the velocity of the elevator after it has risen 15 m?
c. Find the kinetic energy of the elevator 3 seconds after it starts.
d. How much is its potential energy increased in the first 3 seconds?

 POWER

POWER, in general, is defined as the rate at which energy is transferred or the rate of doing
work. It is a scalar quantity and is basically the amount of energy consumed per unit time which has
no direction.

Where P = power
W = work
E = energy
T = time
The unit used for power is watt. 1 watt = 1 J/s = 1 kg-m2/s3

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ENGGPHYSICS Physics for Engineers

Provided hereon are other units used for power.

Units Abbreviation Equivalent Watt Unit

Horsepower HP 746 watts

Kilowatts kW 1×103W

Megawatts MW 1×106W

Gigawatts GW 1×109W

decibel-milliwatts dBm 30 dBm = 1 W

British Thermal Unit BTU 3.412142 BTU/hr = 1 w

Calories per Second cal/sec 0.24 calories per second cal/sec = 1 W

Sample Problems:
1. What average horsepower is developed by an 80 kg man while climbing in 10 s a flight of stairs
that rises 6 m vertically? Express this power in HP, W and kW.
2. A pump is required to lift 800 kg of water per minute from a well, 10 m deep and eject it with a
speed of 20 m/s.
a. How much work is done per minute in lifting the water?
b. By how much in giving it kinetic energy?
c. HP of the engine required?

 LAW OF CONSERVATION OF ENERGY

TOTAL MECHANICAL ENERGY

The total energy (potential and kinetic) is also called the total mechanical energy of an
object.
Note that “Mechanical” energy doesn’t mean that it always has to involve machines. An
apple falling off a cliff has gravitational potential and kinetic energy, so it therefore has mechanical
energy.

Where: Em = Total Mechanical Energy of an object

Ek = Kinetic Energy of an object
Ep = Potential Energy of an object

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ENGGPHYSICS Physics for Engineers

In many questions regarding energy, we assume that we are dealing with an isolated system.
An isolated system simply means a situation where nothing, not even energy, can enter or leave.

 Since isolated systems can't lose or gain energy, we have to be careful that nonconservative
forces (such as friction) do not happen.
 Also, if work is done on or by the system it will change the energy of the system. In that case
it can not be an isolated system.
 As long as we deal with isolated systems we know that the total mechanical energy before
and after will be equal.

Em = Em'
Ek + Ep = Ek' + Ep'

 So if the one type of energy decreases, the other type of energy will increase by a similar
amount.
 Energy is not being created or changed, it is only changing forms or transferring from one
object to another. This is known as the Law of Conservation of Energy.

LAW OF CONSERVATION OF ENERGY

The law of conservation of energy states that energy can neither be created nor be destroyed.
Although, it may be transformed from one form to another. If you take all forms of energy into
account, the total energy of an isolated system always remains constant. All the forms of
energy follow the law of conservation of energy. In brief, the law of conservation of energy states
that

In a closed system, i.e., a system that is isolated from its surroundings, the total energy of the system is
conserved.

Sample Problems:
1. A 14,300 kg airplane is flying at an altitude of 497 m at a speed of 214 km/h. Determine the
airplane's total mechanical energy.
2. A kid is sitting on a toboggan at the top of a 23.7m tall hill. If the kid and toboggan have a total
mass of 37.3 kg , determine how fast they will be going when they reach the bottom of the hill.
3. I decide to show the kid in the previous example how we used to do it back in my day. I grab a
crazy carpet and go running towards the edge of the hill. I jump onto the crazy carpet moving at
3.1m/s just as I go over the edge of the hill and start going down. Determine how far from the
bottom of the hill I am when I am going as fast as the kid did at the bottom in the last question.
4. The 7.50 kg box starts on the floor, and the 12.00 kg box is 3.00 m above the floor. The boxes are
released. Determine the speed of the 7.50 kg box as the 12.0 kg box hits the floor
5. Consider the falling and rolling motion of a 2 kg ball in the following figure and complete the
values of the unknown.

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ENGGPHYSICS Physics for Engineers

6. If the frictional forces and air resistance were acting upon the falling ball in no 6, would the
kinetic energy of the ball just before it hits the ground be more, less or equal to the value
predicted?

 WORK-ENERGY THEOREM
According to Newton’s second law of motion, the sum of all the forces acting on a particle,
or the net force, determines the rate of change in the momentum of the particle, or its motion.
Therefore, we should consider the work done by all the forces acting on a particle, or the net work,
to see what effect it has on the particle’s motion.

The net work done on a particle equals the change in the particle’s kinetic energy:

According to this theorem, when an object slows down, its final kinetic energy is less than its
initial kinetic energy, the change in its kinetic energy is negative, and so is the net work done on it. If
an object speeds up, the net work done on it is positive. When calculating the net work, you must
include all the forces that act on an object. If you leave out any forces that act on an object, or if you
include any forces that don’t act on it, you will get a wrong result.

What is gained by using the work-energy theorem? The importance of the work-energy
theorem, and the further generalizations to which it leads, is that it makes some types of calculations
much simpler to accomplish than they would be by trying to solve Newton’s second law. For an
arbitrary curved surface, the normal force is not constant, and Newton’s second law may be difficult
or impossible to solve analytically. Constant or not, for motion along a surface, the normal force
never does any work, because it’s perpendicular to the displacement. A calculation using the work-
energy theorem avoids this difficulty and applies to more general situations.

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ENGGPHYSICS Physics for Engineers

Sample Problems:
1. A body of mass 2 kg is initially at rest on a horizontal frictionless plane. It is then pulled 4 m by a
horizontal force of magnitude 25 N. Use the work-energy relation to find its final speed.
2. In problem 1, suppose the body has an initial velocity of 10 m/s and is then pulled 4 m by a force
of magnitude 25 N in the direction of the initial velocity. What is the final velocity?
3. An 8 kg block is moving at 3.2 m/s. A net force of 10 N is constantly applied on the block in the
direction of its movement, until it has moved 16 m. What is the approximate final velocity of the
block?
4. Suppose a 30 kg package on the roller belt conveyor is moving at 0.5 m/s.
a. What is its kinetic energy?
b. Suppose the same package will be pushed with constant force F through a distance of 0.8
m, calculate the value of the force.

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