did it seem to take more effort to move the cat and mass when the force was inclined at an angle to the ramp's surface? Do you think that more physical work was done to move the cart over the same distance at the same slow constant speed?
It is the force component parallel to the displacement that is included in the calculation of work. Thus, when the force and displacement are not parallel, the worj is calculated by
W = Fx ΔX = (F cos ɵ) ΔX