The word “work,” in physics has a special meaning, and is, as you said, defined as force multiplied by distance. Yes, if the object we are working on doesn’t move, we are not doing any work. This goes against the normal every day usage of the concept work. I sat all day today working at my computer, but I did very little physical “work.” There are a number of words that can get us tangled up like this. There is a wonderful glossary of misused science terms at http://www.lhup.edu/~dsimanek/scenario/physlang.htm
About things the size of atoms. An atom is less than one ten-billionth of a meter across. (Squeeze a meter stick into a millimeter on a second meter stick, and then squeeze the second meter stick into another millimeter, and the smallest meter stick can measure ten or twenty atoms across one of its millimeters!) If an atom were the size of a big football stadium, a proton or a neutron would be about the size of a tennis ball an entire nucleus may be the size of a soccer ball. At that scale an electron would still be nearly invisible, maybe actually invisible, but in any case still incredibly tiny. As I understand it, the strings people talk about in “string theory” are about as much smaller than an electron as the electron is smaller than the atom. Atoms are too small to see with light, so it is small wonder (ahem) that we have no direct evidence of strings.
Technology advances, though, and each step along the way, every lesson we learn, every question we ask opens up a world of new mysteries. The string theorists hope that the Large Hadron (Protons and neutrons are hadrons.) Collider in Switzerland and France will lead them to data confirming or at least supporting the theory. It is good to know there will still be questions and more bigger machines to build after the LHC is running. :-)
About things the size of atoms. An atom is less than one ten-billionth of a meter across. (Squeeze a meter stick into a millimeter on a second meter stick, and then squeeze the second meter stick into another millimeter, and the smallest meter stick can measure ten or twenty atoms across one of its millimeters!) If an atom were the size of a big football stadium, a proton or a neutron would be about the size of a tennis ball an entire nucleus may be the size of a soccer ball. At that scale an electron would still be nearly invisible, maybe actually invisible, but in any case still incredibly tiny. As I understand it, the strings people talk about in “string theory” are about as much smaller than an electron as the electron is smaller than the atom. Atoms are too small to see with light, so it is small wonder (ahem) that we have no direct evidence of strings.
Technology advances, though, and each step along the way, every lesson we learn, every question we ask opens up a world of new mysteries. The string theorists hope that the Large Hadron (Protons and neutrons are hadrons.) Collider in Switzerland and France will lead them to data confirming or at least supporting the theory. It is good to know there will still be questions and more bigger machines to build after the LHC is running. :-)
