Guth
NewsDocs
Page actions
View as Markdown ↗
Explore MCP tools ↗

instrument / verified-clean

Work-Energy Theorem Calculator

The current ledger marks this instrument verified clean within the source-bound verification corpus.

Status: VERIFIED_CLEANLifecycle: verified-clean

Inspectable records

Ledger state

The current ledger marks this instrument verified clean within the source-bound verification corpus.

Area
Physics — Kinematics/Projectiles/Orbits, Forces/Energy/Momentum, Rotational Dynamics, Gravitation, Oscillations/Waves, Optics, E&M Fields, Relativity, Quantum, Statistical Thermo
Tranche
tranche-4
Evidence ID
t4-131
Ledger rows
1

No ledger note is attached.

Review findings

The formulas are standard under the stated assumptions, but the specification needs explicit definitions for net force, constant force, theta's reference direction, and theta's unit. The exact unresolved ambiguity is whether theta is entered in degrees or radians, and whether F denotes net force or an individual force; therefore the instrument is not ready for an unconditional PASS.

Formula and scope findings

  • W=Fd cos(theta) is correct for a constant force, where theta is the angle between the force vector and displacement vector; the specification does not state the required constant-force assumption.
  • The stated computation is for net work and resulting change in kinetic energy, so F must be the net force. The input label F does not explicitly require that it be the net force.
  • The work-energy equality W=Delta KE applies to net work; work by one individual force is not generally equal to the total kinetic-energy change unless all other work is included or zero.

Unit assumptions

  • F is in newtons, d is in meters, m is in kilograms, u and v are in meters per second, and W and Delta KE are in joules.
  • theta must be explicitly defined as the angle between the force and displacement vectors.
  • The specification does not state whether theta is entered in degrees or radians; this must be made explicit because plain-JS trigonometric functions use radians.
  • For the F,d,theta pathway, F is assumed to be the constant net force over the displacement.
  • For the m,u,v pathway, u and v are initial and final speeds or velocity magnitudes in a fixed inertial frame.

Boundary hardening

BREAK_CLAIMED · SELF_FLAGGED

The extreme-magnitude case overflows ordinary JavaScript numeric arithmetic: the mathematically valid work value 1e616 J becomes Infinity. If the calculator does not reject or flag non-finite results, this is a robustness failure.

Errata and corrections

No applied erratum is attached to this unique-name record.

Inspectable example

4 review vectors are recorded. One source-bound sample is shown below.

{
  "inputs": {
    "F": 50,
    "d": 12,
    "theta": 0,
    "theta_unit": "degrees"
  },
  "expected_outputs": {
    "W_J": 600,
    "DeltaKE_J": 600
  },
  "working": "cos(0 degrees)=1. W=F*d*cos(theta)=50 N*12 m*1=600 J. By the work-energy theorem, DeltaKE=W=600 J."
}

Related workflows

Sources and evidence

These pointers bind the page to evidence. They do not grant authority or collapse verification into deployment.

  • VERIFIED_LEDGER.json · VERIFIED_CLEAN
  • evidence-tranche4/tranche4-results.json
  • BOUNDARY_HAZARD_CATALOG.json