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The work per unit of charge is defined as the movement of negligible test charge between two points, and is expressed as the difference in electric potential at those points. The work can be done, for example, by generators , ( electrochemical cells ) or thermocouples generating an electromotive force .
For a proof, imagine two paths 1 and 2, both going from point A to point B. The variation of energy for the particle, taking path 1 from A to B and then path 2 backwards from B to A, is 0; thus, the work is the same in path 1 and 2, i.e., the work is independent of the path followed, as long as it goes from A to B.
The work done is given by the dot product of the two vectors, where the result is a scalar. When the force F is constant and the angle θ between the force and the displacement s is also constant, then the work done is given by: = If the force is variable, then work is given by the line integral:
A line integral of a vector field is said to be path-independent if it depends on only two integral path endpoints regardless of which path between them is chosen: [4] = for any pair of integral paths P 1 {\displaystyle P_{1}} and P 2 {\displaystyle P_{2}} between a given pair of path endpoints in U {\displaystyle U} .
Work done by conservative forces does not depend on the path followed by the object, but only the end points, as the above equation shows. The gradient theorem also has an interesting converse: any path-independent vector field can be expressed as the gradient of a scalar field. Just like the gradient theorem itself, this converse has many ...
In thermodynamics, a quantity that is well defined so as to describe the path of a process through the equilibrium state space of a thermodynamic system is termed a process function, [1] or, alternatively, a process quantity, or a path function. As an example, mechanical work and heat are process functions because they describe quantitatively ...
In electronics, a continuity test is the checking of an electric circuit to see if current flows (that it is in fact a complete circuit). A continuity test is performed by placing a small voltage (wired in series with an LED or noise-producing component such as a piezoelectric speaker ) across the chosen path.
Thermodynamic work is one of the principal kinds of process by which a thermodynamic system can interact with and transfer energy to its surroundings. This results in externally measurable macroscopic forces on the system's surroundings, which can cause mechanical work, to lift a weight, for example, [1] or cause changes in electromagnetic, [2] [3] [4] or gravitational [5] variables.