Final answer:
Driving a nail typically takes less time than driving a screw into wood, because a nail only requires a few hammer strikes, while a screw must be rotated and advanced into the wood gradually. When calculating nail usage, if a spring's stretch decreases from 50 cm to 30 cm during a workday, it indicates that 40% of the nails have been used.
Step-by-step explanation:
When comparing the time it takes to drive a nail versus a screw into wood, it is often found that driving a nail is typically a quicker process. A nail needs a few strikes from a hammer to embed into the wood fully.
In contrast, a screw requires more time because it operates on the principle of a circular inclined plane, which denotes that its threads must rotate and advance into the material gradually. A screwdriver or a powered drill is necessary to wind the screw in, where the pitch or the distance between screw threads plays a key role in the effort required to drive the screw.
Addressing the schoolwork question in reference to carpentry: At the start of the day, the spring stretches 50 cm due to the weight of the nails, whereas at the end of the day, it stretches just 30 cm. Assuming a linear relationship between spring stretch and nail weight, the fraction of nails used is (50 - 30) / 50, which simplifies to 20/50 or 2/5. To express this as a percentage, we convert 2/5 to 40%. So, 40% of the nails have been used during the day.