Question

Why work is considered as a scalar quantity although force and displacement are vector quantities(i.e. they have a specific magnitude as well as direction)?

Answer 1

Work done by the force is the product of the component of the force in the direction of the displacement and the magnitude of the displacement .We can write as:

W=F.s
We know the dot product of two vectors gives a scalar quantity and hence work is a scalar quantity.
Work doesn’t have direction; it just can be positive, negative or zero depending upon the angle between the force applied and the direction of the displacement.