As you say: it will take a much longer time for the bowling ball to move one meter. Pushing the ball bearing with 1 N for one meter and pushing a bowling ball with 1 N for 1 meter do exactly the same amount of work: 1 joule. In space, you could use a big spring anchored to a heavy space station. By contrast, the weight doesn't use up any energy, except when it actually moves.Ī weight is a very convenient way to make a "pure force" here on Earth. It only does one Joule of work on the ball, but it does many joules of work on the hot gas that it accelerates out the back. The rocket motor uses up energy continually, every second, because it spews out hot gas. The difference from the rocket motor, is that a rocket motor wastes energy even when it's not pushing the ball. A heavy ball holds back the weight, and stops it from falling as fast as it would like to. It is easy to see that the weight goes down 1 meter when the ball goes along 1 meter, no matter how heavy the ball or the weight, right? But, the weight and the ball will be going a lot faster if the ball is light. The weight falls down and pulls the ball along: Maybe imagine the ball is being pulled by a weight, or a spring, back here on Earth.
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