Physics

Hello, Physics teacher here! Key to the concept of energy aka work is its definition:

Work done on an object = force X distance moved in the direction of the force. This can also apply when the force is in the opposite direction to the movement, i.e. gravitational force down, movement up. We say we're doing work against gravity.

So the slope introduces horizontal movement but the absence of horizontal forces makes this irrelevant to the problem here. It only becomes relevant when say, sliding and friction is introduced!

It's a deceptive thing, that incline.

As a human doing the work (human definition), it's intuitively less work to use the slope.

But in measurable, calculable physics terms, the slope only changes the time over which the Work (Physics definition) is done.

In this scenario since acceleration is near zero, it doesn't matter.

Not quite, you have to multiply distance by the force applied to the object (its weight in Newtons), but they're using its mass (kilograms).

It's actually 98 Nm, since weight = mass * gravitational acceleration and g ≈ 9.8 m/s² (you'll see people give more digits but it actually varies by at most 0.1 m/s² or so depending on where you are).