Harvard Physics Circle

Lecture 5: Work-Energy

Atınç Çağan Şengül

October 17th, 2020

1 Kinetic Energy & Work

Now we define another useful quantity, kinetic energy.
1 2 1
EK = m|~v | = m~v · ~v (1)
2 2
Suppose we move along a path γ from point A to point B. Let us parametrize that path with time, ~r(t)
Z tB  
dEK
EK (tB ) − EK (tA ) = dt (2)
tA dt
Z tB
d~v
= dt m · ~v (3)
tA dt
Z tB
= dt F~ · ~v (4)
tA

This is by definion a path integral, so we can write,

Z B
EK (~rB ) − EK (~rA ) = d~r · F~ (5)
A
along γ

This is why kinetic energy is useful. In fact, the right hand side of the integral is also a useful concept so it deserves its own
name, work.

Problem 1: Calculate and compare the kinetic energy of:

• a running human whose mass is 75 kg and speed is 5 m/s
• a bullet whose mass is 8 g and speed is 715 m/s

Solution 1: The kinetic energy is given by 12 mv 2 . So we can calculate the kinetic energy of the human and the bullet as,

Ehuman = 0.5(75 kg)(5 m/s)2 = 937.5 J (6)

Ebullet = 0.5(8 × 10−3 kg)(715 m/s)2 = 2044.9 J (7)

The fact that kinetic energy scales with the square of the velocity is what makes projectile weapons, driving over the speed limit,
asteroid impacts and other high-speed collisions so deadly.

Problem 2: A 2 kg box rests on the floor. How much work is required to move it at constant speed
• 3m along the floor against a friction force of 4N,

• 3m along a frictionless air table,

• 3m vertically?

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Solution 2: We need to apply a force equal to the friction to move the box at a constant speed. So the work we need to do is,

W = (3 m)(4 N) = 12 Nm (8)

We do not need any force to move it in the frictionless case, so the work is 0. For the vertical case we need to match the force
of gravity. Therefore the amount of work we need to do is,

W = (3 m)(2 kg)(9.8 m/s2 ) = 58.8 Nm (9)

Problem 3: An incoming ball with mass of m = 0.4 kg hits a footballer on his chest with a velocity of v =10 m/s and comes
to a stop. During the bounce the footballer’s chest compresses by d =1 cm. What is the average force exerted on the footballer?

Solution 3: The chest of the footballer does work to stop the kinetic energy of the incoming ball. So we can write the
work-energy equation as,

1 mv 2 (0.4 kg)(10 m/s)2

W = Favg d = mv 2 ⇒ Favg = = = 2000 N (10)
2 2d 2(0.01 m)

2 Potential Energy
Something beautiful happens when the path integral that gives work is path independent. It allows us to define, potential energy.
Z ~
r
V (~r) ≡ − d~r · F~ (11)
~
r0
along any path

Exercise for the ambitious: We can show that

1) The integral of F~ from any point to any other point is path independent.
2) The integral of F~ over any closed path vanishes.
3) ∇ × F~ = 0 everywhere.(hard)
are equivalent statements. These statements are trivially true when our system is one dimensional.

Another way of writing Eq (39) is,

Z ~
r
V (~r) − V (~r0 ) = − d~r · F~ (12)
~
r0
along any path

So we can rewrite Eq (38) as,

EK (~rB ) − EK (~rA ) = V (~rA ) − V (~rB ) (13)
Rearranging terms we can write,
EK (~rB ) + V (~rB ) = EK (~rA ) + V (~rA ) (14)
We will define this conserved quantity as total mechanical energy.

E ≡ EK + V (15)

Problem 4: What is the potential energy, due to Earth’s gravity, of an object with mass m which is the height h above the
Earth’s surface? You can assume h is small enough that the gravitational acceleration near Earth is constant and that the
gravitational potential is 0 on the Earth’s surface.

Solution 4: We need to calculate the work that is needed to lift the object from Earth’s surface to height h, which will be
equal to its potential energy at that height. We need to apply a force equal to the object’s weight and move it vertically by h.
So the work is,
W = Ep = mgh (16)

Problem 5: What is the potential energy stored in an elastic spring with the spring constant k, when it is compressed from
its relaxed position by the amount x?

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Solution 5: Hooke’s law gives us that the spring exerts a force resisting the compression that is proportional to the amount
of compression. We need to apply a force equal to this while we move by the total amount x. When the spring is compressed by
x0 we are exerting a force with the amount F = kx0 . The potential energy is equal to the total work we need to do to compress
the spring by the amount x. So we calculate,
Z Z
1
W = Ep = dx F (x ) = dx0 kx0 = kx02
0 0
(17)
2

2.1 F=ma 2007

3 Power
We can define another useful quantity which is work done per time, which is called power. Mathematically, we write it as,
δW
P = . (18)
dt
It is measured in J/s which is named Watt and written as W.

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Problem 6: An elevator has a motor that can output a maximum of 9800 W. Its cabin weighs 125 kg. How fast can this
elevator lift a person weighing 75 kg up 20 m?

Solution 6: The person and the cabin weighs G = (200 kg)(9.8 m/s) = 1960 N. To move this weight up with a velocity v
requires a power of P = Gv. Therefore the maximum speed that the elevator can lift is 9800 W/1960 N = 5 m/s. So it can travel
20 m in 4 seconds.

3.1 F=ma 2008

4 Collisions
4.1 1D Elastic Collision
We will now consider a 1D elastic collision between two particles: 1, and 2. We know momentum and kinetic energy before and
after the collision have to be the same.
p~1,i + p~2,i = p~1,f + p~2,f (19)
E1,i + E2,i = E1,f + E2,f (20)
Let the masses and initial velocities of the particles be, m1 , v1,i , m2 , v2,i . So we can write these equations as,

m1 v1,i + m2 v2,i = m1 v1,f + m2 v2,f (21)

1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2
m1 v1,i + m2 v2,i = m1 v1,f + m2 v2,f (22)
2 2 2 2
Using Eq (48), we can write,
v1,f − v1,i = −(m2 /m1 )(v2,f − v2,i ) (23)
When m2 /m1 ≈ 0, we see that v1,f ≈ v1,i . Which makes sense since hitting a table tennis ball would not change a car’s velocity.
We can also write the energy equation in a simpler form,
2 2 2 2
v1,f − v1,i = −(m2 /m1 )(v2,f − v2,i ) (24)

Plugging Eq (50) into Eq (51) gives,

2 2 2 2
(v1,i − (m2 /m1 )(v2,f − v2,i )) − v1,i = −(m2 /m1 )(v2,f − v2,i ) (25)

let x = (m2 /m1 )(v2,f − v2,i ), which gives,

−2v1,i x + x2 = −x((m1 /m2 )x + 2v2,i ) (26)

We can put this in a cleaner quadratic form,

x [(1 + (m1 /m2 ))x + 2(v2,i − v1,i )] = 0 (27)

So x = 0 is one of the solutions but it is not interesting since it gives the case when they do not affect each other and continue
with their old velocities. So the other solution is,
2(v2,i − v1,i )
x=− (28)
1 + (m1 /m2 )

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So for v2,f we get,
2(v2,i − v1,i )
v2,f = v2,i − (m1 /m2 ) (29)
1 + (m1 /m2 )
Similarly for v1,f we get,
2(v2,i − v1,i )
v1,f = v1,i + (30)
1 + (m1 /m2 )
These expressions look rather crowded. However, they actually have a very simple interpretation. Let us solve the same problem,
but this time we will work in the center of mass frame. The center of mass velocity of the system can be written as,

m1 v1 + m2 v2 (m1 /m2 )v1 + v2

β= = (31)
m1 + m2 1 + (m1 /m2 )

Let us denote the velocities of the particles in the center of mass frame as u = v − β. So we have,

(1 + (m1 /m2 ))v1 − (m1 /m2 )v1 − v2 v1 − v2

u1 = v1 − β = = (32)
1 + (m1 /m2 ) 1 + (m1 /m2 )
v2 − v1
u2 = v2 − β = (m1 /m2 ) = −(m1 /m2 )u1 (33)
1 + (m1 /m2 )
Since there are no external forces we know that βi = βf . So momentum conservation is trivially satisfied.

u1,f − u1,i = −(m2 /m1 )(u2,f − u2,i ) ⇒ u1,f − u1,i = (m2 /m1 )(m1 /m2 )(u1,f − u1,i ) (34)

The energy conservation becomes,

u21,f − u21,i = −(m2 /m1 )(u22,f − u22,i ) ⇒ u21,f − u21,i = −(m2 /m1 )(m1 /m2 )2 (u21,f − u21,i ) (35)

⇒ u21,f = u21,i u22,f = u22,i (36)

So in the center of mass frame, the particle velocities either do not change at all (no collision), or they stay the same value but
flip sign. Flipping sign in an arbitrary frame means subtracting twice the velocity relative to the center of mass. We can see this
in Eq (56) and (57).
v2,f = v2,i − 2u2,i v1,f = v1,i − 2u1,i (37)

Exercise: Study the m2 /m1 → ∞ and m2 /m1 → 0 limits.

4.2 2D Collision
We now consider the collision of two particles like before, but now in a 2 dimensional space.
Exercise: Prove that one can always choose a 2D plane such that a collision of 2 particles in 3D space is restricted to that 2D
plane.
Without loss of generality we can choose m2 ≥ m1 , ~v2,i = 0, ~v1,i = vx̂. (Exercise: Why?)

m1 vx̂ = m1~v1,f + m2~v2,f (38)

2 2
m1 v 2 = m1 |~v1,f | + m2 |~v2,f | (39)
Let us now denote ~v1,f = (v1x , v1y ), ~v2,f = (v2x , v2y ). So we get 3 scalar equations.

m1 v = m1 v1x + m2 v2x (40)

0 = m1 v1y + m2 v2y (41)

2 2 2 2 2
m1 v = m1 (v1x + v1y ) + m2 (v2x + v2y ) (42)
We notice that there a 3 equations and 4 variables to solve for. This means there is a continuum of solutions characterized by a
free parameter. In other words we need an additional piece of information to solve the problem fully. Suppose we also know the
angle that ~v1,f makes with the x-axis, θ. So we can write,

v1y = v1 sin θ, v1x = v1 cos θ (43)

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Using this, and Eq (66), we have,
v = v1 cos θ + (m2 /m1 )v2x (44)
v 2 = v12 + (m2 /m1 )v2x
2
+ (m1 /m2 )v12 sin2 θ (45)
Using the first equation to substitute v2x , we get,

v 2 = v12 + (m1 /m2 )[v 2 + v12 cos2 θ − 2vv1 cos θ] + (m1 /m2 )v12 sin2 θ (46)

Which can be simplified into,      

m1 m1 m1
1+ v12 + −2 v cos θ v1 − 1 − v2 = 0 (47)
m2 m2 m2
Let us denote γ = m1 /m2 . The solution to this is,
p
γ cos θ ± 1 − γ 2 sin2 θ
v1 = v (48)
(1 + γ)

We notice that,
γ 2 cos2 θ ≤ 1 − γ 2 sin2 θ, because γ 2 ≤ 1 (49)
The negative solution therefore can be absorbed into choosing θ → θ + π. So we have,
p
γ cos θ + 1 − γ 2 sin2 θ
v1 = v (50)
(1 + γ)

Exercise: Study what happens when θ → 0, π & γ → 1, 0

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4.3 F=ma 2009

5 Homework and Additional Exercises

You can solve more of the past F=ma problems that are related to work-energy. You can find the list of topics of each problem
in the blog of Kevin S Huang that is given in the references. For more challanging problems you can look at sections 5.9 and
5.10 of David Morin’s book which is also given in the references.

6 References
• https://kevinshuang.com/2019/12/28/2019-fma-exam-analysis/

• https://www.aapt.org/physicsteam/2018/exams.cfm

• David Morin, Introduction to Classical Mechanics With Problems and Solutions