The word work has serveral meanings to different people. Your parent or gardian probably leaves for work every day. Homework is something that a teacher assigns you to do at home on your own time. In science, work has a different meaning. Work is the result of a force applied to an object and the measure of the distance that object has moved.
Joules therefore define the amount of work that has been done on an object.
Machines do work. In order for work to be done on an object, a force must move it. If you were to push on a brick wall all day as hard as you could, even though you may feel like you have done work, no work would have been done since the wall never moved. Complete the following work problems. The first one has been done as an example for you.