Why Mass of a Body is Not Considered When Calculating Work

[Jefferson1986]

I found that work is Force * Displacement

When a force is applied on a body and the body is displaced

My query is why mass of the body is not considered when work is calculated?

Please answer.

 

[sea_dreamer]

Mass is actually considered. Force is mass times acceleration.

 

[Doc Al]

I found that work is Force * Displacement

When a force is applied on a body and the body is displaced

My query is why mass of the body is not considered when work is calculated?

To calculate the work done by a force, the mass of the object is irrelevant. If you push with the same force for the same displacement, the work you do is the same regardless of the object's mass. And if that's the only force acting, then the change in the object's kinetic energy will be the same, regardless of its mass. (The resulting speed will depend on the mass, though.)

 

[sophiecentaur]

Where possible, it is best to keep a definition simple - involving as few variables as possible. There are a million different ways of doing 1kJ of work, some involving a lot of change in Kinetic Energy (throwing something) and some involving more of a change in Potential Energy (raising something slowly). By defining work in terms of force times displacement in the direction of the force (- important to include that!) you eliminate the need to consider what the work is actually 'doing', because that is not necessarily relevant to the energy that is put into the process.

 

[PJC01]

The mass of a body is not considered when calculating work because work is a measure of the energy transferred to an object, not the amount of matter in the object. Work is calculated by multiplying the force applied to an object by the distance the object is moved in the direction of the force. This means that the work done on an object depends on the magnitude of the force and the distance the object is moved, regardless of its mass.

In other words, the amount of work done on an object is determined by the force applied and the distance the object is displaced, not by its mass. This is because an object's mass does not affect how much energy is transferred to it when a force is applied. For example, if you push a heavy object and a light object with the same amount of force over the same distance, the work done on both objects will be the same, even though the heavy object has a greater mass.

Additionally, work is a scalar quantity, meaning it only has magnitude and no direction. Mass, on the other hand, is a vector quantity with both magnitude and direction. Therefore, it is not possible to directly incorporate mass into the calculation of work.

Overall, the mass of a body is not considered when calculating work because it does not directly affect the amount of energy transferred to the object. Work is determined by the force applied and the distance the object is moved, making it a more accurate measure of the work done on an object regardless of its mass.