Work and Energy

© 2014 Pearson Education, Inc.

© 2014 Pearson Education, Inc.
© 2014 Pearson Education, Inc.
What is Energy?
• Energy is a property of the state of an object: hard to define
precisely.

• Loosely speaking, objects have energy if they can:

• Break a window (ball with a given velocity).
• Hurt you (an object falling on your head).
• Deform/change the shape.

• The higher the energy of an object the more it can do the

things mentioned above.

• ~ “ability to do work”
© 2014 Pearson Education, Inc.
 Forms of Energy?
Many forms of energy:

• Mechanical:
Kinetic energy (associated with motion)
Potential energy (associated with position)
• Chemical
• Electromagnetic
• Nuclear
Energy is conserved. It can be transferred from one
object to another or change in form, but not created
or destroyed
Why study Energy?
• Why do we need a concept of energy?

• The energy approach to describing motion is

particularly useful when Newton’s Laws are difficult or
impossible to use.

• Energy is a scalar quantity. It does not have a direction

associated with it.
 Work W
Work is the transfer of energy from one entity
to another by an applied force.

 
A force F is applied on an object while it produces a
displacement . The work done by the force F is:
 
𝑊=(𝐹 cos ⁡𝜃)∆ 𝑥   𝑊= ⃗𝐹 · ⃗𝑟
 
where is the angle between the force and the
displacement.
Work: + or -?
Work can be positive, negative, or zero. The sign of the
work depends on the direction of the force relative to
the displacement
W  ( F cos  )  x
Force contributes to the motion:
Work positive: W > 0 if 90°> q > 0°
energy is transferred to the object

Work negative: W < 0 if 180°> q > 90°
Work zero: W = 0 if q = 90°
Work maximum if q = 0°
Work minimum if q = 180°
Force opposing the motion:
Energy is removed from the object
Force does not contribute
to the motion
Work Unit
• SI Unit
• Newton • meter = Joule
• N•m=J W  ( F cos  )  x
• J = kg • m2 / s2 = ( kg • m / s2 ) • m

• If an applied force does can not produce motion, then

no energy has been transferred to the object.

Zero work !
 Work Done by a Constant Force

• Example 3: An Inuit returning from a hunt pulls a sled

as shown. The total mass of the sled is 50.0 kg, and he
exerts a force of 1.20 × 102 N on the sled by pulling on
the rope. How much work does he do on the sled if θ =
30° and he pulls the sled 5.0 m ?

a) 450 J
b) 520 J
c) 300 J
d) 600 J
Work Done by a Constant Force
Example 5: The right figure shows four situations in which a
force is applied to an object. In all four cases, the force has the
same magnitude, and the displacement of the object is to the
right and of the same magnitude. Rank the situations in order of
the work done by the force on the object, from most positive to
most negative.

F

A. I, IV, III, II F
B. II, I, IV, III
C. III, IV, I, II I II

D. I, IV, II, III F 
F
E. III, II, IV, I
III IV
Work Done by a Constant Force

F
 
  F r
W  F  r  Fr cos  
r
I II

WI  0 WII   Fr

 F
F
 
r r
III IV
WIII  Fr WIV  Fr cos 
Work Done by a Constant Force
iClicker 1: A force exerted by the Sun on the Earth holds the
Earth in an orbit around the Sun. Let us assume that the orbit is
perfectly circular. The work done by the force during a short
time interval in which the Earth moves through a displacement
in its orbital path is

A. zero
B. positive
C. negative
D. impossible to determine