Laboratory 5: Force and Work

Lab 5: Force & Work

Refer to the Beyond Labz application to find the lab bench and the Beyond Labz landing. Follow the instructions on the Beyond Labz worksheet specific to the lab title in order to complete this assignment.

Download the Beyond Labz worksheet for this lab here:

Force and Work Download Force and Work

There are a total of seven graded responses or activities in this lab consisting of: 2 pre-lab questions; 2 tables; and 3 questions. Each activity is worth 5 points each. For a total of 35 points for this lab.

Purpose

To compare the amount of work it takes to lift an object straight up in the air to pushing it up a ramp

Intuition
You’ve probably heard about ramps being simple machines, but what does that actually mean? You
have probably seen wheelchair ramps and ramps to load supplies into and out of trucks and airplanes. Why use a ramp instead of the stairs or just lifting an object straight up or down? What are the advantages and disadvantages to each?

Definitions

Force, weight, work

Context & Theory
The Egyptians were able to build their enormous pyramids due to their understanding of the potential
of the inclined plane. Since the Egyptians were limited to just the amount of man-power force they had to haul the blocks of cement to the necessary heights for the structures, they needed to use ramps as machines to achieve their immense task.
Remember the equations:

1. 
2. 
   
   • Where the value of acceleration due to gravity, = 9.8 m/s².

In this activity, you will learn about the relationship between work and force and why it is important to study engineering and improve our understanding of machines.