Thread: work

The only force acting on a 3.8 kg canister that is moving in an xy plane has a magnitude of 4.7 N. The canister initially has a velocity of 4.2 m/s in the positive x direction, and some time later has a velocity of 4.0 m/s in the positive y direction. How much work is done on the canister by the 4.7 N force during this time?

Note: I'm sure it has something to do with the work-kinetic energy theorum. thx

Work is given by where F = force and s = the distance over which the force is applied (for a changing force it's an integral).

So you need to find the distance. First find the acceleration using F=ma.


Then using equations of motion, you can get the distance and then the work. (v is final velocity, u is initialvelocity, a is acceleratio, and s is the distance)

You should be able to do the calculations.

since F = 4.7 N is the only force acting on the object, it does all all the work which happens to also be the net work on the object.

so, yes, it has everything to do with the work-KE theorem.

... Oh no, these two methods give two different results... Or maybe I'm just messing something up...