Question

You have an after-school job carrying cartons of new copy paper up a flight of stairs, and then carrying recycled paper back down the stairs. The mass of the paper does not change. Your physics teacher says that you do not work all day, so you should not be paid. In what sense is the physics teacher correct? What arrangement of payments might you make to ensure that you are properly paid?

Answer 1

Work accounts for displacement. You must have displacement to do work. So by going back and forth between two spots and ending always back at the begining you are not performing Work in the sense of physics terms.

Answer 2

You have no displacement because you end up where you started essentially.

Answer 3

I figured it out, thank you for your response! :)

Answer 4

No Problem