The work done by a force directed perpendicular to the displacement is zero. TRUE OR FALSE ?

1 Answer
Morgan
Oct 20, 2017

True.

Explanation:

Just a quick addition to the other answer provided:

Work is given as the dot product of the force and displacement vectors:

#W=vecF*vecd#

Which, for a constant force, simplifies to:

#W=Fdcos(theta)#

Where:

  • #F# is the applied force
  • #d# is the distance over which this force is applied
  • #theta# is the angle between the force and displacement vectors

Since the value of the cosine is zero for #90^0#, we can see mathematically that the work done by a force directed perpendicular to the displacement is zero.

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