the mythical god atlas is know for fact that he hold up stationary earth does atlas perform any work?

Question

explain your answer please

Answer 1

no...work=force*distance...since he isn't moving, distance=0, so work must equal 0!

Answer 2

Actually Atlas was supposed to hold up the sky. The idea of him carrying the earth on his back came about because of some artwork on an atlas produced by Mercator a few centuries back.
Anyway, there are 3 ways of looking at this problem:
1. Looking at him as a simple mechanical system, he doesn't do any work, no.
Work done = force x distance moved. Since he is not moving, no work is being done.

2. To look at the matter less simplistically however, if he's somehow in a gravity field, and is holding the earth up like a heavy weight, then although he is not actually moving, his muscles in fact, are doing work all the time. This is because, unlike an inanimate object, he can only maintain his position through constant muscular exertion. This requires a continuous expenditure of energy, so in the most pedantic sense, he is in fact doing work.

3. Alternatively, you might point out that since he is holding the earth, he must in reality be floating in space, where there's no gravity, so he still isn't doing any work.

Answer 3

Isn't holding the Earth up and in place enough? I think so. I mean, you have asteroids and comets whizzing by poor ol' Atlas' head. Plus it's FREEZING in space and he's only got that little bitty loincloth! They even made a different measurement of temperature called Kelvin for it...enough said.