If you have an object undergoing uniform circular motion for a given time, were the force is always perpendicular to the dirction of motion, is it posible to determine to amount of energy required to generate the required force? Since a joule is a newton metre, is it posible to derive how far the object moves and thus how much energy is needed to generate the force? I know the amount of work do by the object it self is zero as the force is perpedicular to the dierction of potion, but I want to find the amount of work done by the body providing the force acting on the 1st body. Am I just confuse or on the right track?

I''m not really sure if I''ve understood the question, are there other forces involved? friction, wind..?

otherwise the "virtual work principle" will work.
The force F during the movement dS will perform the virtual work dW=F*dS. For a system with several bodies in balance will the total virtual work performed on the whole system made by all the forces be zero.

/P2

What if F = m * v^2 / r (centripetal force acting on the rotating object) and s is the arc length? Since the force doesn''t vary with respect to position (r is constant), W = F*s.

P2, no other forces are involed.


bartkusa, that sounds like what I want.

Thanks for the help.