Question #4e99f

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Question #4e99f

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Answer 1 · 2016-05-18T18:49:00

This is probably relating to questions where the force is applied at an angle to the direction in which an object is moving

Explanation:

I am second guessing the problem here but I assume you have seen work done equations as
$W = F S$ $W=FS$
and also
$W = F S \cdot cos θ$ $W=FS*costheta$

The definition of work done is:

work done = force x distance moved in direction of force

If this relates to a problem along the following lines, such as "what is the work done on the object if the weight is pulled along in the horizontal direction by a distance S?"
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Then in the above, the force can be resolved into a horizontal component ( $F cos θ$ $Fcostheta$ ) and a vertical component ( $F sin θ$ $Fsintheta$ ).

Work done in the vertical direction is nil (no distance is travelled in the vertical direction) whereas work done in the horizontal direction would be $W = F S \cdot cos θ$ $W=FS*costheta$

A more technically correct definition of work done is that it equals the dot product of two vectors, force and displacement. Hence:
$W = \to F \cdot \to S$ $W=vecF*vecS$
The solution to this is
$W = F S \cdot cos θ$ $W=FS*costheta$ where F and S are the magnitudes of the force and displacement (identical to the above)

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Question #4e99f

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