In everyday life, we think of work as anything that involves exerting force to get something done. In Physics, however, the concept of work is more nuanced and defined as the product of force and displacement. A horse pulling a plow through a field, for example, is doing work. In addition, a girl pushing a truck can also be considered to do work.
The formula for work is w = F * D. In other words, the quantity is equal to the product of the magnitude of the force and the distance of the displacement. It is important to note that, unlike the direction of the force, the direction of the displacement is not a vector quantity.
A common misconception is that if you choose a career or a job that is aligned with your passion, you will be happy at your work. However, the six ingredients of job satisfaction discussed above suggest that passion alone is insufficient to create long-term happiness in a job. Even if you love the subject matter of your work, if you don’t find it intellectually challenging or if you don’t enjoy the people you interact with, you will not be satisfied in that role.
Some examples of doing work are a horse pulling a plow through hay, a girl pushing a truck down the street, a student lifting a backpack full of books on her shoulder, or a weightlifter performing a shot-put. Moreover, work can be done on any object that has potential energy, including objects such as a ball rolling down a hill or an airplane flying through the air.
What is work?
The answer to this question is complicated, but the general definition is that it is the transfer of energy from one place to another. When an object is displaced by a force, it changes its energy state, and the amount of work done on the object is the net change in the object’s potential energy divided by the amount of time it takes for the displacement to occur.
For example, if a girl pushes a truck for a minute, she will have transferred 1 joule of energy to the truck. But if the truck is pulled up and then back down again in the same instant, she will have transferred no energy at all.
Other forms of doing work include changing the momentum of an object, converting kinetic energy to thermal energy, and increasing the velocity of an object. For all of these purposes, the formula is the same. It is important to understand these types of doing work because they have significant societal impact. Aside from the economic benefits that come with them, doing work also provides a sense of self-worth, social belonging, and achievement. All of these are valuable benefits in our current society. As a result, we should strive to do our best work for the benefit of ourselves and society as a whole. Despite the ways in which it can jaded and cynical us, and rob us of passions and relationships, doing work is still a necessary part of our lives.
