Energy, Work & Power (9 of 31) Calculate the Work Done by a Horizontal Force

TL;DR

Calculate work done by a 125 N force over 50 m distance on a sled with no friction.

Transcript

okay in today's video we are going to calculate the amount of work done by a force on an object in this case we have a sled we have our nice blue sled here and it is being moved through the snow a distance of 50 meters by a horizontal force of 125 Newton so we want to know how much work do you do when you apply a force of 125 Newtons through a dist... Read More

Key Insights

• 💦 Work done by a force is calculated as force times distance times cosine of the angle between force and displacement.
• 💦 When force and displacement are parallel and in the same direction, all of the force contributes to the work done.
• 💦 The cosine of zero degrees is one, indicating full contribution of the force to work done.

Questions & Answers

Q: How is work calculated when force and displacement are parallel?

Work is calculated by multiplying force, distance, and the cosine of the angle between force and displacement when they are parallel. In this case, all the force is parallel to the displacement, making the calculation straightforward.

Q: What is the significance of the angle between force and displacement in work calculation?

The angle determines how much of the force is used to move the object. When the force and displacement are parallel, the angle is zero degrees, resulting in all the force contributing to the work done.

Q: Why is the cosine of zero degrees equal to one in work calculation?

The cosine of zero degrees is one because the force and displacement are in the same direction, meaning all the force is parallel to the displacement, resulting in the full force contributing to the work done.

Q: How is the work done calculated in the scenario with a horizontal force on the sled?

The work done is calculated by multiplying the force (125 N), distance (50 m), and the cosine of the angle between force and displacement (0 degrees), resulting in 6250 joules of work done.

Summary & Key Takeaways

• Calculation of work done by a 125 N force on a sled moving 50 meters horizontally.

• Work is the product of force and distance when they are parallel with no friction.

• Formula for work is force multiplied by distance multiplied by cosine of the angle between force and displacement.