Question

Is much work does a an elevator do to lift a 1500 kg elevator a height of 100 m?

Answer 1

Work done is equal to the force times the distance over which that force acts (provided they are parallel vectors)  In symbols we say:
$W= \int\limits^b_a { F^{.} } \, dr$
Since gravity acts downward and the elevator goes upward, the dot product is reduced to a simple multiplication problem.  First we need the downward force of the elevator, which is the weight according to F=ma.  F=1500kg*9.81m/s^2=14715N.  Then W=14715N*100m=1471500J, or 1.4715MJ