Work

Plowing a field

You might think you know what work is, like homework, or having to pick up your room, right? But to scientists, work has a more definite meaning: work is force x distance.

That means that you can measure work by measuring how much force, or energy, it took to move something, and multiplying that by how far you moved it or how many of them you moved). It takes a certain amount of energy to push a plow through the fields, and it takes more energy to push it up and down four furrows than it takes to push it down only one furrow.

To make work easier, people use machines.

To find out more about work, check out these books from Amazon.com or from your library: