Mechanical work Totally Explained

Everything about Work Physics totally explained

In physics, mechanical work is the amount of energy transferred by a force. Like energy, it's a scalar quantity, with SI units of joules. The term work was first coined in the 1830s by the French mathematician Gaspard-Gustave Coriolis. According to the work-energy theorem if an external force acts upon an object, causing its kinetic energy to change from E_k1 to E_k2, then the mechanical work (W) is given by:
ť

W = Delta E_k = E_ m Delta (v^2)

Thus we've derived the result, that the mechanical work done by an external force acting upon a body is proportional to the difference in the squares of the speeds. (It should be observed that the last term in the equation above is

Delta v^2

rather than

(Delta v)^2

.)
The principle of conservation of mechanical energy states that, if a system is subject only to conservative forces (for example only to a gravitational force), or if the sum of the work of all the other forces is zero, its total mechanical energy remains constant.
For instance, if an object with constant mass is in free fall, the total energy of position 1 will equal that of position 2. ť

(E_k + E_p)_1 = (E_k + E_p)_2 ,!

where

$E_k$ is the kinetic energy, and
$E_p$ is the potential energy. The external work will usually be done by the friction force between the system on the motion or the internal-non conservative force in the system or loss of energy due to heat.

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