You and your neighbour are shovelling snow. If your neighbour pushes a shovel four times as far as you do but exerts only a half the force, which one of you does more work and by how much?

Question

Physics

Judd

25 November, 12:58

You and your neighbour are shovelling snow. If your neighbour pushes a shovel four times as far as you do but exerts only a half the force, which one of you does more work and by how much?

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Answers (1)

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Nathaniel Warner · Answer 1

The neighbour

Double your work

Explanation:

Work is a product of force and distance, expressed as W=Fd where W is work in Nm, F is applied force and d is the distance in m

Since your neighbour pushes 4 times then you just push 1m when he pushes 4m, that is an example. Also, since the neighbour only exerts half the force ie 0.5N then you exert full force of 1N

Work from your neighbour will be 4d*0.5F=2dF

Work from you will be dF

Clearly, 2dF=2 (dF) hence the neigjbour exerts double work