A box with a mass of 7 kilograms is pushed up a ramp to a height of 5 meters. What is the work done against the force of gravity?
1 Answer
Explanation:
Work done is just the force applied multiplied by the distance it acts over. The question asks us about the work done against the force of gravity, which acts in the downward direction. We can calculate the force from the mass which is given. The question also gives us the change in height of the object, which is the direction in which gravity is acting.
The trick is to understand that it doesn't matter how the object gets to the new height, the work done against gravity is the same. It could go straight up or up a long incline, the answer will be the same since we are excluding work done against any other potential forces. Therefore, the force is given by:
The work can be calculated by
