WORK AND POWER

What is work?
◦ In science, the word work has a different meaning than you may be familiar with.
◦ The scientific definition of work is:the amount of energy transferred when one body exert a force on a
another.
◦ WORKE DONE = ENERGY TRANSFERRED

2
Work (force is parallel to distance)

Force (N)

Work (joules) W=Fxd

Distance (m)
◦ In physics, work is the magnitude of the force (F) times the magnitude of the displacement (d) in the
same direction as the force.
◦ W = Fd

◦ What are the SI units for work?

◦ Force units (N)  distance units (m)
◦ N•m are also called joules (J).

◦ How much work is 1 joule?

◦ If you push a box with a force of one newton for a distance of one meter, you have done exactly one joule
of work.
When a force does no work
 Learning Check!

◦ Why aren’t the following tasks considered work?

◦ A student holds a heavy chair at arm’s length for several minutes.

◦ A student carries a bucket of water along a horizontal path while walking at a constant velocity.

• In the first case, no work is done because the object does not move (d = 0).

• In the second case, no work is done because the distance moved is not in the direction of the force (the force is
vertically upward while the distance is horizontal). There is no component of the force in the horizontal
direction.
8.2 CALCULATING WORK DONE.
◦ WORKED EXAMPLE 8.1
Work done and mgh
◦ Worked example 8.2
Paper 4 pg 91 Nov/2010
Paper 4 pg 100 Nov/2014
◦ H.w
◦ Pg 102-103
◦ 104
◦ 95
◦ 88 – a
 Power How quickly work is done.

◦ Power is the rate at which work is done.

◦ This is the same as the rate at which it transfers energy from one form to another.

• Doing work at a faster rate requires more

power.

• To increase power, you can increases the

amount of work done in a given time, or you
can do a given amount of work in less time.
 Power

◦ SI units for power are J/s called watts (W)

◦ Larger units are the kilowatt (kW) and the megawatt (MW):

1 kW = 1000 W = 10^3 W
1 MW = 1 000 000 W = 10^6 W
 Power

◦ These bulbs all consume different amounts of

power.
◦ A 100 watt bulb consumes 100 joules of energy
every second.
WORKED EXAMPLE 8.3 Pg 147
◦ A car of mass 800 kg accelerate from rest to a speed of 25 m/s in 10 s. what is its power?
Paper 4 pg 81

June 2006
◦ Paper 4 Pg 83
◦ June 2007
◦ Paper 4 Pg 87
◦ June /2009
H.W
◦ Pg 84
◦ 89
◦ 90
◦ 92
93-94