True or false: when a mountain climber climbs up a snow mountain work is done by his weight force?

work is done by his weight force is his weight x distance he climbed along the slope. please explain why or why not? (physics)True or false: when a mountain climber climbs up a snow mountain work is done by his weight force?
Very false.





Fancy math explanation - Work is the dot product of the force vector with the displacement vector. The force vector is vertical, and the displacement vector (which points to him as he climbs the mountain) keeps going sideways so the dot product takes only the vertical component of his displacement (which is the altitude gained) rather than the total displacement (which would be the distance traveled along the slope).





Simple math explanation - The work done is just the change in potential energy, which is mass * gravity * height = weight * height, rather than mass * gravity * distance traveled = weight * distance traveled. In other words, only the vertical component of travel makes a difference in terms of work done.





This is the theoretical answer, which neglects real world contributions like how the body works, energy lost for breathing, etc.

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