Work (physics)

In physics, a force is said to do work if, when acting on a body, there is a displacement of the point of application in the direction of the force.

For example, when a ball is held above the ground and then dropped, the work done on the ball as it falls is equal to the weight of the ball (a force) multiplied by the distance to the ground (a displacement).

The term work was introduced in 1826 by the French mathematician Gaspard-Gustave Coriolis as "weight lifted through a height", which is based on the use of early steam engines to lift buckets of water out of flooded ore mines.

The SI unit of work is the newton-metre or joule (J).

External links

• Work (physics) @ Wikipedia