Question

An object was thrown at a certain angle to the ground. it moves in a curved path and falls back to the ground. The initial and the final points of the path of the object lie on the same horizontal line. What is the work done by the force of gravity on the object?

Answer 1

1. Work is said to be done when a force applied to an object moves that object in the direction of the applied force.
2. Work done is mathematically expressed as $W=F\times S$ where $F$ is the force applied to the object, and $S$ is the displacement that occurred.
3. Work done by the force of gravity on an object depends only on vertical displacement.
4. The force that is applied to a freely falling object equals the weight of the object.
5. The vertical displacement of the given object is zero, as the object remains on the ground at initial and final positions.
6. Work done by gravity is given by the expression,

$$\begin{gathered} W=m\times g\times h(wherehistheverticaldisplacementi.e.,equalto0) \\ W=m\times g\times 0 \\ W=0J \end{gathered}$$

5. Therefore, the work done by gravity on the given object is 0 J.