Work and Energy
Work is closely related to energy. The conservation of energy states that the change in total internal energy of a system equals the added heat minus the work performed by the system (see the first law of thermodynamics),
Also, from Newton's second law for rigid bodies it can be shown that work on an object is equal to the change in kinetic energy of that object,
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The work of forces generated by a potential function is known as potential energy and the forces are said to be conservative. Therefore work on an object moving in a conservative force field is equal to minus the change of potential energy of the object,
This shows that work is the energy associated with the action of a force, and so has the physical dimensions and units of energy.
The work energy principle discussed here is identical in the case of Electrical work.
Read more about this topic: Work (physics)
Famous quotes containing the words work and/or energy:
“Art should exhilarate, and throw down the walls of circumstance on every side, awakening in the beholder the same sense of universal relation and power which the work evinced in the artist, and its highest effect is to make new artists.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“There are no accidents, only nature throwing her weight around. Even the bomb merely releases energy that nature has put there. Nuclear war would be just a spark in the grandeur of space. Nor can radiation “alter” nature: she will absorb it all. After the bomb, nature will pick up the cards we have spilled, shuffle them, and begin her game again.”
—Camille Paglia (b. 1947)