Work Done

Work is defined in physics as the energy transferred to or from an item as a result of the application of force along a displacement. Often, it is represented in its most basic form as the product of force and displacement. When a force is applied, it is said to do positive work if the component of the force that is applied is in the direction of the displacement of the point of application. When a force has a component that is in the opposite direction as the displacement at the point of application of the force, it is said to be doing negative work.

Consider the following example: If a ball is suspended above the ground and then dropped, the work done by the gravitational force on the ball as it falls is equal to the weight of the ball (a force) multiplied by the distance between the ball and the ground (a displacement).

Work is a scalar number, which means that it has only a magnitude and no direction associated with it. When you work, you move energy from one location to another, or from one form to another. Joule (J) is the SI unit of work, and it is the same unit as the unit of energy.

Unit of work

In the International System of Units of Work, the joule (J) is named after the 19th-century English physicist James Prescott Joule. It is defined as the amount of work necessary to apply a force of one newton through a displacement of one meter.

Occasionally, the dimensionally equivalent newton-meter (Nm) is used as the unit of work measurement, however this should not be confused with the unit of torque measurement, which is the metric for torque. The use of newton-meters (Nm) is discouraged by the International System of Units (SI) because it can cause misunderstanding as to whether the number stated in newton-meters is a torque measurement or a work measurement.

Examples of non-SI measures of effort include Newton meters (ergs), feet pounds (foot pounds), kilowatt hours, liters of atmosphere, and horsepower hours (horsepower). Due to the fact that labor has the same physical dimension as heat, measurement units that are generally reserved for heat or energy content, such as the thermometer, BTU, and calorie, are occasionally used as measuring units for work.

Work and Energy

In physics, the product is the work W done by a constant force of size F on a point that moves a distance s in a straight line in the direction of the force. Suppose a force of 10 newtons (F = 10 N) operates along a point that moves 2 meters (s = 2 m), and the work done is equal to the force multiplied by the length of the point (W = Fs). This is approximately the amount of work required to move a 1 kilogram’s object from the ground to above a person’s head while fighting against the force of gravity. Either by lifting twice the weight over the same distance or by lifting the same weight twice over the same distance, the work is multiplied by two. Energy and work are inextricably linked. This concept asserts that an increase in the kinetic energy of an immobile rigid body is caused by an equal amount of positive work done on the body by a force operating on that body. A decrease in kinetic energy, on the other hand, is caused by an equal amount of negative work done by the resulting force, and vice versa. As a result, if the network is positive, the kinetic energy of the particle increases by the amount of work performed. If the total amount of work done is negative, the kinetic energy of the particle falls by the amount of work done.

According to Newton’s second law, work done on a free (i.e., without the presence of fields) and rigid (i.e., without internal degrees of freedom) body equals the change in kinetic energy proportional to the linear velocity and angular velocity of that body.

Potential energy is the work done by forces generated by a potential function, and the forces are said to be conservative when they do their work. The work done on an item that is only displaced in a conservative force field, with no change in velocity or rotation, is equal to minus the change in potential energy that the object has experienced.

These formulas demonstrate that work is the energy associated with the action of a force, and that work possesses the physical dimensions and units of energy as a result of this relationship. The work/energy principles mentioned here are identical to the work/energy principles used in electric power generation.

Conclusion

The term “work” refers to the process of moving something over a distance. The amount of energy transmitted, or the amount of work done, can be calculated by multiplying the force by the distance travelled in the direction of the force.

Energy transferred equals work done, which is equal to force multiplied by the distance travelled in the direction of the force.