Uncle Bob doesn't like Yukon Gold.
You are finally there! You have pushed a box of potatoes 80 meters along flat land and 30 meters up a hill and now you are at Uncle Bob's place. You knock on the door and proudly present your box of potatoes and ask him to make his wonderful garlic mashed potatoes. He takes one look at the potatoes and says, "Yukon Gold?! You can't make mashed potatoes with Yukon Gold. Those are roasting potatoes and anyway, I'm out of garlic."
Stunned, you weakly push the box of potatoes a few meters more toward the edge of a 10-meter tall cliff and with a mighty roar, gingerly kick the box of potatoes toward their doom.
As the box of potatoes is falling through the air, what forces are doing work to it?
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1 solution
Even though you might want to think your rage is still a factor, once you are no longer in contact with the box of potatoes, you are not doing work to it any longer. As the box of potatoes falls vertically, the force of gravity is in the same direction as the displacement vector. The force of air resistance is in the opposite direction as the displacement vector and also does work.