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Raapys said:
But the 'work = force * distance' function is fatally flawed when used in this situation, because the result of the equation will be zero, indicating no energy has been spent, no work has been done. Obviously this is completely incorrect, since you'll be standing there sweaty and tired, having wasted alot of energy on the task.
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Work is being done in the sense that ions are being moved around in your muscle cells to keep the muscle contracted.
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I think a fitting metaphor would be two guys pulling each side of a rope. They're both applying kinetic energy to the rope, but in different directions, canceling it out. So even if the rope isn't actually moving, there's still alot of work being done on it. The difference is that where both these two guys would eventually get tired, gravity does not.
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The rope isn't moving, thus it has no kinetic energy. Likewise, no work is done
on the rope (although the two guys will grow tired because work is being done within their muscle cells).