Work and Kinetic Energy

Work and Kinetic Energy
The concept of energy is one of the most important topics in science and
engineering.
In everyday life, we think of energy in terms of fuel for transportation
and heating, electricity for lights and appliances, and foods for
consumption. However, these ideas do not really define energy.
They merely tell us that fuels are needed to do a job and that those fuels
provide us with something we call energy.
In this chapter, we first introduce the concept of work. Work is done by
a forceacting on an object when the point of application of that force
moves through some distance and the force has a component along the
line of motion.
Next, we define kinetic energy, which is energy an object possesses
because of its motion.
WORK DONE BY A CONSTANT FORCE
Almost all the terms we have used thus farvelocity, acceleration,

force, and so onconvey nearly the same meaning in physics as they do
in everyday life. Now, however, we encounter a term whose meaning in
physics is distinctly different from its everyday meaning.
Analyzing forces to determine the work they do, we must consider the
vector nature of forces. We also need to know how far the eraser moves
along the tray if we want to determine the work required to cause that
motion. Moving the eraser 3 m requires more work than moving it 2 cm.
The work W done on an object by an agent exerting a constant force on
the object is the product of the component of the force in the direction
of the displacement and the magnitude of the displacement: W Fd cos
Let us examine the situation in Figure up picture, where an object
undergoes a displacement d along a straight line while acted on by a
constant force F that makes an angle with d.
If an object undergoes a displacement d under the action of a constant

force F, the work done by the force is (F cos )d.
When an object is displaced on a frictionless, horizontal,
surface, the normal force n and the force of gravity mg do no work on
the object. In the situation shown here, F is the only force doing work
on the object.
The work done by the normal force on the object and the work done by
the force of gravity on the object are both zero because both forces are
perpendicular to the displacement and have zero components in the
direction of d.
If an applied force F acts along the direction of the displacement, then
0 and cos 0 1. In this case, Equation example gives. Work is a scalar
quantity, and its units are force multiplied by length. Therefore, the SI
unit of work is the newtonmeter (Nm). This combination of units is used
so frequently that it has been given a name of its own: the joule (J).
THE SCALAR PRODUCT OF TWO
VECTORS
In general, the scalar product of any two vectors A and B is a scalar
quantity equal to the product of the magnitudes of the two vectors and
the cosine of the angle 0 between them: A=B A0B cos
The dot product is simple to evaluate from Equation 7.3 when A is
either perpendicular or parallel to B. If A is perpendicular to B (0= 90),
then A.B = 0.
(The equality A.B = 0 also holds in the more trivial case when either A
or B is zero.) If vector A is parallel to vector B and the two point in the
same direction (0= 0), then A.B 0 AB. If vector A is parallel to vector B
but the two point in opposite directions (0= 180), then A.B 0 <AB. The
scalar product is negative when 90 <0<180.
WORK DONE BY A VARYING FORCE
Consider a particle being displaced along the x axis under the action of a
varying force. The particle is displaced in the direction of increasing x
from x = xi to x = xf . In such a situation, we cannot use W = (F cos 0)d
to calculate the work done by the force because this relationship applies
only when F is constant in magnitude and direction.
However, if we imagine that the particle undergoes a very small
displacement x.
If the displacements are allowed to approach zero, then the number of
terms in the sum increases without limit but the value of the sum
approaches a definite value equal to the area bounded by the Fx curve
and the x axis:
This definite integral is numerically equal to the area under the Fx -
versus-x curve between xi and xf . Therefore, we can express the work
done by Fx as the particle moves from xi to xf as:
If more than one force acts on a particle, the total work done is just the
work done by the resultant force. If we express the resultant force, then
the total work, or net work, done as the particle moves from xi to xf is :
A force acting on a particle varies with x, as shown in Figure. Calculate
the work done by the force as the particle moves from x = 0 to x = 6.0m.
The work done by the force is equal to the area under the curve from xA
= 0 to xC = 6.0 m. This area is equal to the area of the rectangular
section from A to B plus the area of the triangular section from 0 to X
The area of the rectangle is (4.0)(5.0) N.m = 20 J, and the area of the
triangle is (2,0) (5,0) N.m = 5.0 J. Therefore, the total work done is
25 J.
Work Done by the Sun on a Probe
if the spring has a force constant of 80 N/m and is compressed 3.0 cm
from equilibrium, the work done by the spring force as the block moves
from xi = -3.0 cm to its unstretched position xf = 0 is 3.6 X 10-2 J.
From Equation 7.11 we also see that the work done by the spring force
is zero for any motion that ends where it began (xi = xf ). We shall make
use of this important result, in which we describe the motion of this
system in greater detail.
KINETIC ENERGY AND THE
WORK KINETIC ENERGY THEOREM
the force is constant, we know from Newtons second law that the
particle moves with a constant acceleration a. If the particle is displaced
a distance d, the net work done by the total force EF is :
Kinetic energy is a scalar quantity and has the same units as work. For
example, a 2.0-kg object moving with a speed of 4.0 m/s has a kinetic
energy of 16 J. Table 7.1 lists the kinetic energies for various objects.
POWER
Imagine two identical models of an automobile: one with a base-priced
four-cylinder engine; and the other with the highest-priced optional
engine, a mighty eightcylinder powerplant. Despite the differences in
engines, the two cars have the same mass. Both cars climb a roadway up
a hill, but the car with the optional engine takes much less time to reach
the top. It is important to realize that a kilowatt hour is a unit of energy,
not power.
When you pay your electric bill, you pay the power company for the
total electrical energy you used during the billing period. This energy is
the power used multiplied by the time during which it was used. For
example, a 300-W lightbulb run for 12 h would convert (0.300 kW)(12
h) = 3.6 kWh of electrical energy.
ENERGY AND THE AUTOMOBILE
Automobiles powered by gasoline engines are very inefficient
machines. Even under ideal conditions, less than 15% of the chemical
energy in the fuel is used to power the vehicle. The situation is much
worse under stop-and-go driving conditions in a city. In this section, we
use the concepts of energy, power, and friction to analyze automobile
fuel consumption.
KINETIC ENERGY AT HIGH SPEEDS
All formulas in the theory of relativity must reduce to those in
Newtonian mechanics at low particle speeds. It is instructive to show
that this is the case for the kinetic energy relationship by analyzing
Equation 7.19 when v is small compared with c. In this case, we expect
K to reduce to the Newtonian expression. We can check this by using
the binomial expansion (Appendix B.5) applied to the quantity [1 -
(v/c)2]-1/2, with v/cV1. If we let x = (v/c)2, the expansion gives.

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Work and Kinetic Energy

Almost all the terms we have used thus farvelocity, acceleration,

If an object undergoes a displacement d under the action of a constant

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