Work Done and Energy Questions

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100 CHAPTER 4.

ENERGY
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33 From
Doing Work, Potential Energy and Isaac Covid lessons archive:
Power
isaacphysics.org/pages/covid19_gcse
Doing work always requires a force. However, applying a force does not ne-
cessarily mean that work is done.
A force does need an energy supply if the force’s point of application is mov-
ing (unless the motion is at right angles to the force).
Example of a force which does require an energy supply:
Thrust from jet engine.
Example of a force which does not require an energy supply:
The weight of a book sitting on a table.
If the force is in the same direction as the motion, the force does work on the
object and the object will speed up (unless other forces act).
If the force on the object is in the opposite direction to its motion, the object
does work and it will slow down (unless other forces act).
When work is done, one energy store will decrease, and another will in-
crease. Work is measured in joules (J) - the same unit as energy.
If the force is perpendicular to the motion, the object neither slows down
nor speeds up. No work is done, and there is no energy transfer. However,
the object will change direction and accelerate.
work done = force × distance moved parallel to force

W = Fs

Energy Transfer, E = Work Done, W


So, lifting a 1 N weight 1 m upwards requires work of 1 J.
Lifting a 1 N weight 2 m upwards requires work of 2 J.
Lifting a 2 N weight 2 m upwards requires work of 4 J.
Lifting a 10 N weight 4.0 m upwards onto a shelf, and then sliding it sideways
by 2.0 m against a friction force of 2.5 N requires work of 40 + 5 = 45 J.

The energy change each second is called the power, measured in watts (W).
power = energy transfer/time
E W
P= or P =
t t
CHAPTER 4. ENERGY 101

Example 1 – Calculate the power needed to push a car 12.5 m along a


road with a force of 2 340 N in 15.0 s.

Work done = Fs = 2 340 N × 12.5 m = 29 250 J


Power = W/t = 29 250 J/15.0 s = 1 950 W

Example 2 – Calculate the energy transfer when a 20 kg sack of flour is


winched 13.5 m upwards in a mill.

Force = weight = mass × g = 20.0 kg × 10 N/kg = 200 N


Work done = Fs = 200 N × 13.5 m = 2 700 J

Notice that the work done during lifting equals the increase in gravitational
potential energy.

gravitational potential energy (GPE) = mass × g × height

E = mgh

33.1 Complete the table below, where each row is a separate question.
The units are in the heading except in the cases where they are
stated.
Force (N) Distance (m) Work (J) Time (s) Power (W)
4.5 8.2 (a) 10.0 (b)
(c) 30.0 12 000 (d) 7 200
650 75 cm (e) 0.63 (f )
2 500 12.0 (g) (h) 713
Weight for
a mass of 200 km (i) 7.0 min (j)
100 kg
33.2 A builder needs to drag a sack of cement 20 m along the floor against
a friction force of 60 N.
(a) Calculate the work done needed.
(b) The dragging took two minutes. What was power of the builder?
102 CHAPTER 4. ENERGY

33.3 How much gravitational potential energy is lost when a 60 kg boy


walks down a flight of stairs which is 4.5 m high?
33.4 A weight-lifter raises a barbell of mass 20 kg, doing 490 J of work
on it. Through what height does she lift the barbell?
33.5 A lighting bar on stage has a mass of 300 kg when supporting stage
lights.
(a) What is its weight?
(b) How much energy do you need to lift it by 10 m?
(c) If your power is 100 W, how long would it take you to lift the bar
by 10 m?
(d) What is the increase in gravitational potential energy when the
bar is lifted by 10 m?

33.6 A car park has three floors. The ground floor is at street level. The
first floor is 4.0 m above the ground floor, the second floor is 3.0 m
above the first floor.
(a) How much energy does it take to lift an 800 kg hatchback to the
top level from the street?
(b) How much energy does it take to lift a 2000 kg SUV to the first
floor from the street?
(c) Calculate the change in gravitational potential energy when a
400 kg city car moves to the top floor.
(d) ♡ Calculate the change in gravitational potential (that is, the
gravitational potential energy per kilogram) in cases (a), (b) and (c)
of this question.

33.7 When an object falls in a gravitational field it loses gravitational po-


tential energy.
(a) How much gravitational potential energy is lost when a rock of
mass 3.0 kg falls to the foot of a 250 m cliff on the Moon where ‘g’
is 1.6 N/kg?
CHAPTER 4. ENERGY 103

(b) In a hydroelectric power station, how much potential energy is


lost by 100 tonnes of water flowing down through the pipes, falling
a vertical distance of 200 metres? (1 tonne = 1 000 kg)

33.8 A rower exercises with an output power of 200 W. Her boat (con-
taining 7 other equally-strong rowers) travels at a speed of 9.0 m/s.
(a) How far will the boat go in 20 s?
(b) How much energy will the crew have converted in 20 s?
(c) Calculate the force each rower exerts to push the boat along.
(d) What happens if you multiply the force in (c) by the speed of
the boat?

Q33.8(d) should show you that there is another useful equation:

power = force parallel to motion × speed

P = Fv

33.9 ♡ A car is being driven down a drag race track.


(a) Calculate the power of car engine needed if the car is to be
driven at a constant 70 mph (31 m/s) against a combined friction
and air resistance force of 1400 N.
(b) Calculate the power of car engine required to drive the car at a
speed of 100 mph (44.7 m/s) against 1400 N of resistive force.
(c) In practice, the car needs a much more powerful engine. Why?
33.10 A mountain climber has a mass (with all of their equipment) of 95.0 kg.
If they were perfectly efficient, and ate 500 g of chocolate (11.1 MJ
of chemical energy), how high could they climb? 24/
32

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