After a large snowstorm, you shovel 2,500 kilograms of snow off of your sidewalk in half an hour. You lift the shovel to an average height of 1.5 meters while you are piling the snow in your yard.
a. How much work did you do? (Hint: The force is the weight of the snow.)
b. What was your power in watts? (Hint: You must always convert time to seconds when calculating power.)
Answer (2)
Well, the snow has a total weight G=mg=25,000 N. The work is L=Fd=Gh=1.5*25,000=37,500 J. The power is L/t, where t=1800 seconds. P=37,500/1800=20.833 W.
The work done while shoveling 2,500 kg of snow to a height of 1.5 meters is approximately 36,787.5 joules. The power output over half an hour is approximately 20.4 watts. This demonstrates the relationship between work, power, and time in physics.
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