Fourth year of secondary education
Work, power and energy
I. Sevila
 W.P.E. 
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WORK AND FRICTION

Let's look a little closer at the physical situations we are considering.

We know that the effort to move a car which has broken down may be more or less effective depending on the surface of the road.  In previous units we dealt with the dynamics of movement and we considered the existence of the resistance caused by friction.  Let's see what influence these forces have in the present context.

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LEARN: Friction doesn't do any useful work.  However the mathematical expression of work doesn't distinguish among the types of forces.  We can calculate the "work lost through friction":

Work (W)
What is work (W) in science?
Forces do work
The force of friction and work
Energy
Kinetic energy
Potential energy
The principle of the conservation of energy
Transformation of energy
Work and energy
The power (P) of a force/machine
EVALUATION