Answer to Question #142545 in Physics for Sam Agrie

Question

Joe picked a box with a mass of 12.0 kg off of the floor up 1.00 meters . He then carried the box 12.0 meters to the east , and gently placed the box back on the floor . What is the net work ?

Answer 1

We can consider the gravity field near the surface of Earth as a uniform (in x and y directions) conservative vector field. In such case the work done against gravity field depends only on the initial and final height of the box above the ground level.

The net work against the gravity is zero, since the the box has returned on the same ground level.

Answer. 0 J.