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In science, work is the energy transferred to or from an object via the application of force along a displacement.In its simplest form, for a constant force aligned with the direction of motion, the work equals the product of the force strength and the distance traveled.
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.
The kinetic energy of an object is equal to the work, force times displacement , needed to achieve its stated velocity. Having gained this energy during its acceleration, the mass maintains this kinetic energy unless its speed changes. The same amount of work is done by the object when decelerating from its current speed to a state of rest. [2]
To every action, there is always opposed an equal reaction; or, the mutual actions of two bodies upon each other are always equal, and directed to contrary parts. [14]: 116 Rockets work by producing a strong reaction force downwards using rocket engines. This pushes the rocket upwards, without regard to the ground or the atmosphere.
If is the displacement, the force exerted by an ideal spring equals: =, where is the spring constant (or force constant), which is particular to the spring. The minus sign accounts for the tendency of the force to act in opposition to the applied load.
The pressure acts as a generalized force – pressure differences force a change in volume, and their product is the energy lost by the system due to mechanical work. Pressure is the driving force, volume is the associated displacement, and the two form a pair of conjugate variables. The above holds true only for non-viscous fluids.
The work done by a conservative force is equal to the negative of change in potential energy during that process. 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 ...
In the application of the principle of virtual work it is often convenient to obtain virtual displacements from the velocities of the system. For the n particle system, let the velocity of each particle P i be V i, then the virtual displacement δr i can also be written in the form [2] = = ˙, =, …,.