Leigh wrote:
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I have one elementary textbook on my shelf here at home, Fishbane,
Gasiorowicz and Thornton. (I'm teaching from this text now. I did
not select it and I would not advise others to do so.) It has
several index entries for the work energy theorem, one of which
(called "the work-energy theorem") deals with a single "object"
(which I take to be a particle) and equates the change in kinetic
energy of the particle with the work done on it by all external
forces. I have no problem with that result, but I judge it to be
so trivial as to be unworthy of being singled out for its own
designation.
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regarding its triviality:
de gustibus non est disputandum
I might add that have an embarrasingly large fraction of students who prove
to me on HW and tests that it is not a triviality.
In what I hope is in the worthy spirit of spirited collegial dialogue.