Question

Am I right in saying that 'work' is actually 'the work performed on an object by the vector sum of all forces acting on it'?

Answer 1

It is the sum of the components of the forces acting in the direction of motion (displacement) with forces 180 degrees from the direction of motion negative.

Answer 2

So when people mention work it is never refering to a single force (if there are >1 'active'), but always the vectorial sum?

Answer 3

The vector sum of all the forces is the net force. So you can say that the vector sum of all forces on an object do exert work on the object.

'work performed on an object by the net force acting upon it' is actually 'the work performed on an object by the vector sum of all forces acting on it'

When you mention work alone, you also have to consider that there's more to it than the forces that play their part. It's actually their relationship with the objects displacement.

Answer 4

I realise that, but thank you for elucidating the matter to me.

Answer 5

Yeah! Well it looks like you know what you're talking about!

I was just say that work is actually more than what you said, so what you said was not a substitution for definition of work. But you could talk about "work" as "work performed on an object by the vector sum of all forces acting on it" for sure!

Answer 6

for the definition*