Work Calculator
From the force, the distance moved, and the angle between them, get the mechanical work done — the energy transferred behind every push, lift, and machine.
What is work in physics?
Force and distance in, energy transferred out
In physics, work is the energy transferred to an object when a force moves it through a distance. It is not effort or busyness — it is a precise quantity equal to the force times the distance times the cosine of the angle between them, written work = force × distance × cos(θ). The angle θ is measured between the direction of the force and the direction of motion. Once you know those three numbers the work is fixed, and because work is energy transferred, the result tells you exactly how much energy changed hands. That makes it the everyday tool for lifting loads, pushing carts, sizing machines, and analysing exercise.
Enter the force in newtons, the distance in metres, and the angle in degrees to get the work done instantly.
One short formula, built from the force (F), the distance (d), and the angle (θ) between them.
work = force × distance × cos(θ)The cosine term is what makes the angle matter. Only the component of the force that points along the motion does work, and cos(θ) picks out exactly that part. At 0° the force is fully aligned with the motion (cos(0) = 1) and all of it counts; at 90° it acts sideways (cos(90°) = 0) and does no work; beyond 90° the cosine goes negative, so a force that opposes the motion does negative work.
Suppose you push an object with a force of 100 N over a distance of 5 m, straight along the direction of motion (θ = 0°).
Take the cosine of the angle
cos(0°) = 1 — the force is fully aligned with the motion, so none of it is wasted.
Multiply force × distance × cosine
100 × 5 × 1 = 500 J — the work done on the object.
Read it as energy
500 J of work means 500 J of energy were transferred to the object.
The single number this calculator returns is the energy transferred to the object by the force, and the angle is the key to reading it. When the force points straight along the motion (θ = 0°), every newton counts and the work is simply force × distance — 100 N over 5 m gives the full 500 J. As the angle grows, the cosine shrinks the result: at 60° only half the force does work, and at 90° the force is purely sideways, so the work drops to zero. This is why carrying a bag horizontally across a room does no work on the bag even though your hand pushes up on it the whole way — the upward force is at 90° to the horizontal motion. Past 90° the cosine turns negative and so does the work: a 10 N force acting against a 10 m motion (θ = 180°) does −100 J, meaning it removes 100 J of energy, exactly what friction or braking does. So a positive result is energy added, zero means the force is perpendicular and irrelevant to the motion, and a negative result is energy taken away.
The formula is exact for a constant force along a straight path, but a couple of practical points are worth keeping in mind.
Constant force, straight path, SI units
This formula assumes the force and the angle stay constant while the object moves in a straight line. If the force varies along the way or the path curves, the true work is an integral and this gives only an approximation. Keep the inputs in newtons, metres, and degrees so the answer comes back in joules, and remember the angle is the one between the force and the direction of motion — not the slope of a ramp or any other angle in the problem.