An inventor claims to have built a machine that can produce 120 J of work with an input of 110 J. Would you believe the inventor's claim? Why or why not?

Question

anonymous · Answer

I would not believe it. I cannot back this up mathematically, but intuitively there is no way that you could get more work out of a machine than you put in. This is because when work is put in, not all of the work is used efficiently. Meaning some is lost to heat, and deformation if present. I found this website that says the same thing: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_the_comparison_of_work_output_to_work_input