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If the component along the direction of motion acts with the motion, it is called an effort; if against the motion, a resistance. The component across the direction of motion is a lateral pressure; the unbalanced lateral pressure on any piece, or part of a piece, is deflecting force. A lateral pressure may increase resistance by causing friction; the friction so caused acts against the motion, and is a resistance, but the lateral pressure causing it is not a resistance. Resistances are distinguished into useful and prejudicial, according as they arise from the useful effect produced by the machine or from other causes.
§ 86. Work.—Work consists in moving against resistance. The work is said to be performed, and the resistance overcome. Work is measured by the product of the resistance into the distance through which its point of application is moved. The unit of work commonly used in Britain is a resistance of one pound overcome through a distance of one foot, and is called a foot-pound.
Work is distinguished into useful work and prejudicial or lost work, according as it is performed in producing the useful effect of the machine, or in overcoming prejudicial resistance.
§ 87. Energy: Potential Energy.—Energy means capacity for performing work. The energy of an effort, or potential energy, is measured by the product of the effort into the distance through which its point of application is capable of being moved. The unit of energy is the same with the unit of work.
When the point of application of an effort has been moved through a given distance, energy is said to have been exerted to an amount expressed by the product of the effort into the distance through which its point of application has been moved.
§ 88. Variable Effort and Resistance.—If an effort has different magnitudes during different portions of the motion of its point of application through a given distance, let each different magnitude of the effort P be multiplied by the length Δs of the corresponding portion of the path of the point of application; the sum
Σ · PΔs
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