Energy gives us one more tool to use to analyze physical situations. When forces and accelerations are used, you usually freeze the action at a particular instant in time, draw a free-body diagram, set up force equations, figure out accelerations, etc. With energy the approach is usually a little different. Often you can look at the starting conditions (initial speed and height, for instance) and the final conditions (final speed and height), and not have to worry about what happens in between. The initial and final information can often tell you all you need to know.
Whenever a force is applied to an object, causing the object to move, work is done by the force. If a force is applied but the object doesn't move, no work is done; if a force is applied and the object moves a distance d in a direction other than the direction of the force, less work is done than if the object moves a distance d in the direction of the applied force
