Work and Energy Legacy Problem #1 Guided Solution
Problem*
Renatta Gass is out with her friends. Misfortune occurs and Renatta and her friends find themselves getting a workout. They apply a cumulative force of 1080 N to push the car 218 m to the nearest fuel station. Determine the work done on the ca
Audio Guided Solution
When a force is applied to an object to cause it to move, we say that work is being done. And in this question, we wish to calculate the work done upon a car by Renate Gas and her friends after a misfortune strikes. They're applying a force of 1080 Newtons to push the car 218 meters. We presume this force is in the same direction that the car moves. What we're asked to do is determine the work. Work is equal to the force that's applied multiplied by the distance the object moves multiplied by the cosine of the angle between the force and the direction that the object moves. In this case, that angle is zero degrees. So we have to go 1080 Newtons times 218 meters times the cosine of zero degrees. And when we do, we get 235,440 joules of work being done. We can round that to three significant digits such that the answer becomes 2.35 times 10 to the fifth joules.
Solution
2.35 x 105 J
Habbits of an Effective Problem Solver
- Read the problem carefully and develop a mental picture of the physical situation. If necessary, sketch a simple diagram of the physical situation to help you visualize it.
- Identify the known and unknown quantities in an organized manner. Equate given values to the symbols used to represent the corresponding quantity - e.g., \(\descriptive{v}{v,velocity}_\descriptive{o}{o,original} = 0 \unit{\meter\per\second}\); \(\descriptive{a}{a,acceleration} = 4.2\unit{\meter\per\square\second}\); \(\descriptive{v}{v,velocity}_\descriptive{f}{f,final} = 22.9 \unit{\meter\per\second}\); \(\descriptive{d}{d,distance} = \colorbox{gray}{Unknown}\).
- Use physics formulas and conceptual reasoning to plot a strategy for solving for the unknown quantity.
- Identify the appropriate formula(s) to use.
- Perform substitutions and algebraic manipulations in order to solve for the unknown quantity.
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