How to find the total work if more than one force acts on the system?

Question

BlackTom AI · Accepted Answer

To determine total work when multiple forces act on a system, it’s important to consider how work is combined.
Option a: ‘By adding all the work done by each force’ correctly reflects the principle that work is a scalar quantity and can be summed when multiple forces act independently along the displacement. This is the standard approach in physics for total work when forces are concurrent along the same path.
Option b: ‘By dividing all the work done by each force’ introduces division, which has no basis in the way work accumulates. Work from forces does not get combined by dividing; this would not yield a meaningful total in the context of work-energy.
Option c: ‘By subtracting all the work done by each force’ would only make sense if you had a specific sign convention where some forces do negative work and others positive, but simply subtracting all works ignores the possibility of some forces performing positive work and others negative. It’s not a general recipe for total work.
Option d: ‘By multiplying all the work done by each force’ multiplies, which does not align with how energies combine. The product of individual works does not represent total work by the system and lacks physical justification.
In summary, totaling the contributions from each force by addition (taking into account signs when necessary) is the correct method for finding the total work done on a system when multiple forces act.

UCIC 202503 PHYS101 Quiz 3

How to find the total work if more than one force acts on the system?

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