Work, Kinetic Energy and Potential Energy

Kinetic Energy
For an object with mass m and speed v, the kinetic energy is defined as

Kinetic energy is a scalar (it has magnitude but no direction); it is always a positive number; and it has SI
units of kg · m2/ s 2 . This new combination of the basic SI units is known as the joule:

the joule is also the unit of work W and potential energy U. Other energy units often seen are:

PROBLEM 1:

1. If a Saturn V rocket with an Apollo spacecraft attached has a combined mass of 2.9 ×
105 kg and is to reach a speed of 11.2 km /s , how much kinetic energy will it then
have?

The rocket will have 1.8 × 1013 J of kinetic energy.

PROBLEM: 2
2. If an electron (mass m = 9.11 × 10-13 kg) in copper near the lowest possible temperature has a
kinetic energy of 6.7×10-19 J, what is the speed of the electron?
Use the definition of kinetic energy, the given values of K and m, and
solve for v

Work
When an object moves while a force is being exerted on it, then work is being done on the object by the
force. If an object moves through a displacement d while a constant force F is acting on it, the force does
an amount of work equal to
where φ is the angle between d and F.

Work is also a scalar and has units of 1 N · m. But we can see that this is the same as the joule

Work can be negative; this happens when the angle between force and displacement is larger than 90◦ .
It can also be zero; this happens if φ = 90◦ . To do work, the force must have a component along (or
opposite to) the direction of the motion.

If several different (constant) forces act on a mass while it moves though a displacement d, then we can
talk about the net work done by the forces,

If the force which acts on the object is not constant while the object moves then we must perform an
integral (a sum) to find the work done.

Suppose the object moves along a straight line (say, along the x axis, from xi to xf ) while a force whose
x component is Fx(x) acts on it. ( we know the force Fx as a function of x.) Then the work done is

Finally, we can give the most general expression for the work done by a force. If an object moves from ri
= xii + yij + zik to rf = xf i + yf j + zfk while a force F(r) acts on it the work done is:

where the integrals are calculated along the path of the object’s motion. This expression can be
abbreviated as
 We’re familiar with the force of gravity; gravity does work on objects which move vertically. One can
show that if the height of an object has changed by an amount ∆y then gravity has done an amount of
work equal to

regardless of the horizontal displacement. Note the minus sign here; if the object increases in height it
has moved oppositely to the force of gravity.

PROBLEM 1 :

A floating ice block is pushed through a displacement of d = (15 m)i − (12 m)j along a straight
embankment by rushing water, which exerts a force F = (210 N)i− (150 N)j on the block. How much work
does the force do on the block during the displacement?

we have the simple case of a straight–line displacement d and a constant force F. Then the work done by
the force is W = F · d. We are given all the components, so we can compute the dot product using the
components of F and d:

W = F · d = Fx dx + Fy dy = (210 N)((15 m) + (−150 N)(−12 m) = 4950 J

PROBLEM 2:

A particle is subject to a force Fx that varies with position as in Fig. 6.1. Find the work done by the force
on the body as it moves (a) from x = 0 to x = 5.0 m, (b) from x = 5.0 m to x = 10 m and (c) from x = 10 m
to x = 15 m. (d) What is the total work done by the force over the distance x = 0 to x = 15 m?
 (a) Here the force is not the same all through the object’s motion, so we can’t use the simple
formula W = Fx x. We must use the more general expression for the work done when a particle
moves along a straight line,

this is just the “area under the curve” of Fx vs. x from xi to xf .

(a) we want this “area” evaluated from x = 0 to x = 5.0
we see that this is just half of a rectangle of base 5.0 m and height 3.0 N. So the work done is

(b) The region under the curve from x = 5.0 m to x = 10.0 m is a full rectangle of base 5.0 m and
height 3.0 N. The work done for this movement of the particle is

c) For the movement from x = 10.0 m to x = 15.0 m the region under the curve is a half rectangle of
base 5.0 m and height 3.0 N. The work done is

(c) The total work done over the distance x = 0 to x = 15.0 m is the sum of the three separate
“areas”,

PROBLEM 3:

What work is done by a force F = (2x N)i+ (3 N)j, with x in meters, that moves a particle from a position ri
= (2 m)i + (3 m)j to a position rf = −(4 m)i − (3 m)j ?

We use the general definition of work (for a two–dimensional problem)

With Fx = 2x and Fy = 3 [we mean that F in newtons when x is in meters; work W will come out with
units of joules!], we find:
Spring Force
The most famous example of a force whose value depends on position is the spring force, which
describes the force exerted on an object by the end of an ideal spring. An ideal spring will pull inward on
the object attached to its end with a force proportional to the amount by which it is stretched; it will
push outward on the object attached to its with a force proportional to amount by which it is
compressed.

If we describe the motion of the end of the spring with the coordinate x and put the origin of the x axis
at the place where the spring exerts no force (the equilibrium position) then the spring force is given by

Here k is force constant, a number which is different for each ideal spring and is a measure of its
“stiffness”. It has units of N/ m = kg/ s 2 . This equation is usually referred to as Hooke’s law. It gives a
decent description of the behavior of real springs, just as long as they can oscillate about their
equilibrium positions and they are not stretched by too much!

When we calculate the work done by a spring on the object attached to its end as the object moves from
xi to xf we get:
PROBLEM 1:

. An archer pulls her bow string back 0.400 m by exerting a force that increases from zero to 230 N. (a)
What is the equivalent spring constant of the bow? (b) How much work is done in pulling the bow?

(a) While a bow string is not literally spring, it may behave like one in that it exerts a force on the
thing attached to it (like a hand!) that is proportional to the distance of pull from the equilibrium
position.
When the string has been pulled back by 0.400 m, the string exerts a restoring force of 230 N.
The magnitude of the string’s force is equal to the force constant k times the magnitude of the
displacement;

: The force of a bow string (a) on the object pulling it back can be modelled as as ideal spring (b)
exerting a restoring force on the mass attached to its end.

(b) Still treating the bow string as if it were an ideal spring, we note that in pulling the string from a
displacement of x = 0 to x = 0.400 m the string does as amount of work on the hand

The Work–Kinetic Energy Theorem

One can show that as a particle moves from point ri to rf , the change in kinetic energy of the object is
equal to the net work done on it:

PROBLEM 1:

A 40 kg box initially at rest is pushed 5.0 m along a rough horizontal floor with a constant applied
horizontal force of 130 N. If the coefficient of friction between the box and floor is 0.30, find (a) the work
done by the applied force, (b) the energy lost due to friction, (c) the change in kinetic energy of the box,
and (d) the final speed of the box.

(a) Applied force and friction force both do work on the box. (b) Diagram showing all the forces acting on
the box.

(a) The motion of the box and the forces which do work on it are shown in Fig.

The (constant) applied force points in the same direction as the displacement. Our formula for the work
done by a constant force gives

The applied force does 6.5 × 102 J of work.

B) shows all the forces acting on the box.

 The vertical forces acting on the box are gravity (mg, downward) and the floor’s normal force
(N, upward). It follows that N = mg and so the magnitude of the friction force is

The friction force is directed opposite the direction of motion (φ = 180◦ ) and so the work that it does is

or we might say that 5.9 × 102 J is lost to friction

(c) Since the normal force and gravity do no work on the box as it moves, the net work done

By the work–Kinetic Energy Theorem, this is equal to the change in kinetic energy of the box:

(d) Here, the initial kinetic energy Ki was zero because the box was initially at rest. So we have Kf = 62 J.

From the definition of kinetic energy, , we get the final speed of the box:

PROBLEM 2:

. A crate of mass 10.0 kg is pulled up a rough incline with an initial speed of 1.50 m/s . The pulling force
is 100 N parallel to the incline, which makes an angle of 20.0 ◦ with the horizontal. The coefficient of
kinetic friction is 0.400, and the crate is pulled 5.00 m. (a) How much work is done by gravity? (b) How
much energy is lost due to friction? (c) How much work is done by the 100 N force? (d) What is the
change in kinetic energy of the crate? (e) What is the speed of the crate after being pulled 5.00 m?

(a) Block moves 5.00 m up plane while acted upon by gravity, friction and an applied force. (b)
Directions of the displacement and the force of gravity

(a) We can calculate the work done by gravity in two ways. First, we can use the definition: W = F · d.
The magnitude of the gravity force is

and the displacement has magnitude 5.00 m. In figure (b)) that the angle between the force and
displacement vectors is 110◦ . Then the work done by gravity is

(b) To find the work done by friction, we need to know the force of friction. The forces on the block are
shown in a) As we have seen before, the normal force between the slope and the block is mg cos θ
(with θ = 20◦ ) so as to cancel the normal component of the force of gravity. Then the force of kinetic
friction on the block points down the slope (opposite the motion) and has magnitude
 (a) Gravity and friction forces which act on the block. (b) The applied force of 100 N is along the
direction of the motion

This force points exactly opposite the direction of the displacement d, so the work done by friction is

(c) The 100 N applied force pulls in the direction up the slope, which is along the direction of the
displacement d. So the work that is does is

(d) We have now found the work done by each of the forces acting on the crate as it moved:
Gravity, friction and the applied force. (We should note the the normal force of the surface also
acted on the crate, but being perpendicular to the motion, it did no work.) The net work done
was:

From the work–energy theorem, this is equal to the change in kinetic energy of the box: ∆K =
Wnet = 148 J.

(e) The initial kinetic energy of the crate was

If the final speed of the crate is v, then the change in kinetic energy was:
The final speed of the crate is 5.64 m/ s .