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I know that :

Position $$r:\mathbb{R} \to\mathbb{R^3} \ \ \ \ \ ; \overrightarrow{r}(t)$$

Velocity $$v :\mathbb{R} \to\mathbb{R^3} \ \ \ \ \ ; \overrightarrow{v}(t)$$

Acceleration $$a:\mathbb{R} \to\mathbb{R^3} \ \ \ \ \ ; \overrightarrow{a}(t)$$

Now i want to know that , what is function of force $F$ and work $W$ ?

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    $\begingroup$ A hint: force is also a vector, meanwhile work is a scalar defined through a line integral which has a scalar product. $\endgroup$
    – Triatticus
    Commented Nov 15, 2018 at 19:49
  • $\begingroup$ This just doesn't make much sense to me. What if I write $\vec{v}(\vec{x})$? I am not changing the "meaning" of what velocity is. Force and Work can be function of many things, depending on the concrete problem. $\endgroup$
    – FGSUZ
    Commented Nov 15, 2018 at 20:30

2 Answers 2

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The force (on a single point particle) is also simply a function: $$\begin{cases} \mathbf F: \mathbb R \rightarrow \mathbb R^3\\ t \longmapsto \mathbf F(t) \end{cases}$$ In other words, $\mathbf F$ takes time as an input and spits out the force exerted on the particle at that time as its output.

However, I assume your confusion comes from the definition of work, usually stated as: $$W_{A\rightarrow B} \equiv \int_{C_{AB}}d\mathbf r \cdot \mathbf F(\mathbf r)$$ where $C_{AB}$ is the path that the particle takes while going from point $A$ to point $B$. However, with a bit of nitpicking, this notation may be somewhat misleading. I would choose to write the definition of work in this way instead: $$W_{A\rightarrow B} \equiv \int_{t_A}^{t_B}d\mathbf r(t) \cdot \mathbf F(t) \equiv \int_{t_A}^{t_B}dt \ \mathbf v(t) \cdot \mathbf F(t) \qquad (*)$$ where I used $d\mathbf r(t) = \frac{d\mathbf r}{dt} \ dt = \mathbf v(t) dt$. If you're wondering why people sometimes write $\mathbf F(\mathbf r)$, see the last part of my answer.

This implies that as a mathematical object, work can be thought of as a functional, which takes the two functions $\mathbf v: \mathbb R \rightarrow \mathbb R^3$ and $\mathbf F: \mathbb R \rightarrow \mathbb R^3$, and returns a real number. So if I call the set of "sufficiently well-behaved" (sorry this is as rigorous as I can get ;)) functions from $\mathbb R$ to $\mathbb R^3$ simply $\mathfrak F$, the work functional can be characterized as: $$\begin{cases} W: \mathfrak F \times \mathfrak F \rightarrow \mathbb R\\ (\mathbf v, \mathbf F) \longmapsto W[\mathbf v,\mathbf F] \end{cases}$$ In other words, the work functional takes the velocity function, or equivalently the position (disregarding a constant shift), as well as the force function, and spits out a number.


You might be asking why the force is usually written as $\mathbf F(\mathbf r)$, instead of $\mathbf F(t)$.This is because most of the time, people are thinking of a force field, which is technically a different mathematical object: $$\begin{cases} \mathbf f: \mathbb R^3 \rightarrow \mathbb R^3\\ \mathbf r \longmapsto \mathbf f(\mathbf r) \end{cases}$$ A force field takes a position vector $\mathbf r$, and spits out the force $\mathbf f$ exerted on a particle (with a specific mass, etc.) if it was sitting at $\mathbf r$. For example, a gravitational force field $\mathbf f(\mathbf r) = GMm \ {\mathbf r}/{|\mathbf r|^3}$ tells you that if you had a particle of mass $m$ at position $\mathbf r$, the force on that particle would be $\mathbf f(\mathbf r)$.

Now the force $\mathbf F: \mathbb R \rightarrow \mathbb R^3$ in the case of a force field is simply a composition of the two functions $\mathbf f: \mathbb R^3 \rightarrow \mathbb R^3$ and $\mathbf r: \mathbb R \rightarrow \mathbb R^3$. In other words, the force at time $t$ is simply the force field evaluated at the position at which the particle is at that instant. So: $$\mathbf F(t) \equiv \mathbf f(\mathbf r(t))$$ Using this on the definition of work $(*)$ you get: $$W_{A \rightarrow B} = \int_{t_A}^{t_B} d\mathbf r(t) \cdot \mathbf f(\mathbf r(t))$$ which is what people actually mean by $W_{A\rightarrow B} \equiv \int_{C_{AB}}d\mathbf r \cdot \mathbf F(\mathbf r)$.

Keep in mind that these are mostly just mathematical (as well as notational) nitpicking. They don't really affect any of the actual Physics in the problem :).

Response to comment:

Just as I talked about a position-dependent force field $\mathbf f(\mathbf r)$, you can have a more generalized time,velocity and position-dependent force field $\mathbf f(\mathbf r,\mathbf v,t)$.

For example, consider a 1D spring with velocity-dependent friction, having a time dependent spring constant $k(t)$. The force exerted on a particle by this spring is simply $-k(t) x-\gamma v$. So you can define a generalized force field $f$ as $f(x,v,t) \equiv -k(t) x-\gamma v$ ($\gamma$ is the friction constant).

More generally you can have a generalized force field $\mathbf f$: $$\begin{cases} \mathbf f: \mathbb R^3\times\mathbb R^3 \times \mathbb R \ \rightarrow \mathbb R^3\\ (\mathbf r, \mathbf v, t) \longmapsto \mathbf f(\mathbf r,\mathbf v,t) \end{cases}$$ Again, the force experienced by a particle in such a force field would be a composition of $\mathbf f$ with the functions $\mathbf r$ and $ \mathbf v$; i.e. $$\mathbf F(t) \equiv \mathbf f(\mathbf r(t),\mathbf v(t),t)$$ So the force experienced by the particle is both explicitly dependent on time, as well as varying through the change of the particles position and velocity.

The work for this force field on the particle would simply be: $$W_{A \rightarrow B} = \int_{t_A}^{t_B} d\mathbf r(t) \cdot \mathbf F(t) = \int_{t_A}^{t_B} d\mathbf r(t) \cdot \mathbf f(\mathbf r(t),\mathbf v(t),t)$$

Note that in principle, you can even think of more and more complicated force fields, the main idea is however the same.

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  • $\begingroup$ in here physics.stackexchange.com/q/300491 said : $\vec{f}(\vec{r}(t),\vec{v}(t),t) $. . I do not understand this . $\endgroup$
    – justin77
    Commented Nov 15, 2018 at 22:02
  • $\begingroup$ See my edited answer. $\endgroup$ Commented Nov 15, 2018 at 23:28
  • $\begingroup$ Notice that : composition of the two functions $\mathbf f: \mathbb R^3 \rightarrow \mathbb R^3$ and $\mathbf r: \mathbb R \rightarrow \mathbb R^3$ Is equal to $\mathbf G: \mathbb R^3 \rightarrow \mathbb R^3$ So $ \mathbf G \neq \mathbf F$ $\endgroup$
    – justin77
    Commented Nov 16, 2018 at 8:45
  • $\begingroup$ The force $\mathbf F : \mathbb R \rightarrow \mathbb R^3$ is the composition of $\mathbf r: \mathbb R \rightarrow \mathbb R^3$ and $\mathbf f: \mathbb R^3 \rightarrow \mathbb R^3$ , which is $$\mathbf F=\mathbf f \mathrm o \mathbf r: \mathbb R \rightarrow \mathbb R^3$$, *not the other way around* ($\mathbf f \mathrm o \mathbf r \neq \mathbf r \mathrm o \mathbf f$). In fact, $\mathbf r \mathrm o \mathbf f$ actually doesn't make sense since the range of $\mathbf f$ ($\mathbb R^3$) is not a subset of the domain of $\mathbf r$ ($\mathbb R$). $\endgroup$ Commented Nov 16, 2018 at 15:30
  • $\begingroup$ Also, as I've already mentioned in my answer, the force field $\mathbf f$ and the force $\mathbf F$ are technically different mathematical objects. They describe the same kind of quantity however, since the range of both of them (the numbers they can spit out, i.e. a number with units of Newtons) is the same. So I don't understand why you're mentioning $\mathbf f \neq \mathbf F$; $\mathbf f$ and $\mathbf F$ are different as I've already explained. The correct correspondence is $\mathbf F(t) = \mathbf f(\mathbf r(t))$. $\endgroup$ Commented Nov 16, 2018 at 15:36
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As the comments state, it ultimately depends on the nature of the system. So the system you've proposed is a three dimensional space parameterized by time. Force is also a vector so it has the same definition as the the vectors you've provided, and if you're dealing with Newtonian mechanics then you may utilize Newton's second law: $\vec{F} = m \vec{a}$. Work is, most simply, the inner product between force and displacement,

$$ W = \vec{F} \cdot \vec{x} $$.

More generally the work is the path integral over this inner product along some curve, $C$,

$$ W = \int_{C} \vec{F} \cdot d\vec{x} = \int_{t_{1}}^{t_{2}} \vec{F} \cdot \vec{v} dt $$

So you can see that work is a scaler.

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