Question

You're pulling a suitcase through the airport on its wheels. The suitcase handle is at an angle of 62.4 to the horizontal. The pulling force you apply to the handle is 10.4 N. How much work (in Joules) are you doing on the suitcase if you pull it a distance of 25.9 m through the airport?

Answer 1

The work is given by:

$W=Fd\cos \theta$

where F is the foce acting on the object, d is the distance traveled and theta is the angle between the force and the distance. Then in this case we have:

$\begin{gathered} W=(10.4)(25.9)\cos 62.4 \\ W=124.79 \end{gathered}$

Therefore you are doing 124.79 J