Work is defined as the change of kinetic energy of an object caused by a force along a
distance.
Work is commonly denoted by the latter W
The SI unit for work is joule [J] which is the same as
in SI base units.
When focusing on an object moving along a straight line under the effect of constant forces ΣF.
Let’s define a x axis along the line of motion.
According to Newton: ΣFx = max
The acceleration a is constant (the sum of forces is constant, and so the following kinematic
formula is relevant: vf2 = v
i2 + 2aΔx (v
f-The final velocity, vi-The initial velocity)
When inserting the previous equation into Newton’s second law:
And after a few algebric actions we get:
From that we can conclude that W = FΔx ; FxΔx is the work done by the force Fx along the
route Δx
Work like energy is a scalar but is defined as the product of two vectorial parameters: ∇F ⋅∇ΔS
and so in a two dimentional space work is defined as the scalar product of force ∇F and change in
place ∇ΔS.