What have I done?
I was just looking back on what I've done in school so far and found one of my physics notes. I have no idea of what these notes mean now, but I need to figure them out soon so if anyone has any idea what this is. Let me know.
posted by Jimmy T @ 4:06 PM
2 Comments:
Come on, Jimmy, get with the program! Everybody knows that the basic work relationship W=Fx is a special case which applies only to constant force along a straight line. That relationship gives the area of the rectangle shown, where the force F is ploted as a function of distance. In the more general case of a force which changes with distance, the work may still be calculated as the area under the curve. For example, for the work done to stretch a spring, the area under the curve can be readily determined as the area of the triangle. The power of calculus can also be applied since the integral of the force over the distance range is equal to the area under the force curve. For any function of x, the work may be calculated as the area under the curve by performing an integral calculation.
;-)
(Yes, I did study this stuff about 12 years ago, but, no, I don't recall even a smidgeon of it. I got the above by Googling "work done by varying force"...)
Oh ya I remember now.
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