What is the work and power involved in pushing a cart at a 30 degree angle?

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In summary, the girl is pushing a cart at an angle of 30 degrees with a force of 150N for 20 minutes, traveling a total of 800 meters. She does 103,923J of work and has an average power output of 87 watts over the entire time. These calculations are reasonable and correct in SI units.
  • #1
DeepPatel
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Homework Statement



A girl (starting from rest) is pushing a cart full of softballs at an angle of 30 degrees above the horizontal. She pushes with a force of 150N. She travels through the school store for 20 minutes and travels a total of 800meters.

a). How much work (in joules) does she do?

b). What is average power (in watts) over the entire time?

Homework Equations


W=Fdcos(theta), P=W/t, W=J/s

The Attempt at a Solution


For part a) I did W=Fdcos(theta) and got 103,923J and for part b) I'm not sure how to write the units because it is in minutes so I just converted 20 minutes to 1200 seconds and got 87 watts, I just don't think I did everything correct because of the large numbers and the units have confused me.
 
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  • #2
Your calculations look correct to me. The result of 87 watts is a reasonable power output for a schoolgirl working comfortably below maximum effort.
 
  • #3
andrewkirk said:
Your calculations look correct to me. The result of 87 watts is a reasonable power output for a schoolgirl working comfortably below maximum effort.
Were all my units correct because the question asked for specifics and that is what confused me?
 
  • #4
Yes the units are correct. The base SI units are metres, seconds and kilograms. A Joule is one Newton metre, a Newton is one ##kg\ ms^{-2}##, and Watt is one Joule per second. Calculations should be in SI units except where specified otherwise, and that's what you've done. Hence for instance your conversion of minutes to seconds was the correct thing to do.
 

Related to What is the work and power involved in pushing a cart at a 30 degree angle?

1. What is the definition of work and power?

Work is defined as the product of force and distance, while power is the rate at which work is done or energy is transferred.

2. What are the units of work and power?

The standard unit of work is joules (J) and the standard unit of power is watts (W).

3. How do you calculate work and power?

Work is calculated by multiplying the force applied to an object by the distance it moves, while power is calculated by dividing the work done by the time it takes to do it.

4. Can you provide an example of a work and power problem?

An example of a work and power problem could be calculating the power needed to lift a 50kg box to a height of 5 meters in 10 seconds. The work done would be (50kg)(9.8m/s^2)(5m) = 2450 J, and the power would be (2450 J)/(10 s) = 245 W.

5. How are work and power related?

Work and power are related in that power is the rate at which work is done. This means that the more work done in a given amount of time, the greater the power required.

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