Re: Introducing WORK

["Brian McInnes" <bmcinnes@pnc.com.au>]

>

> Chuck Britton wrote:
> > I like to think that WORK is a PROCESS of converting Energy
> > from one form to another. ....
Ludwik Kowalski wqrote 
Sure, but work is also a "physical quantity" associated with a process,
> not the process itself. Wind interacting with the sail of a moving boat,
>
> for example, is a process, work is one of many physical quantities
> associated with it. Other quantities are time, displacement, viscosity,
> temperature, buoyant force, reflectivity, etc. The same is true for
> other processes, such as magnet working on a toy, you climbing a hill
> or her pushing a box.
>
> Having a different name for a process, as opposed to names of
> physical quantities, is desirable, in my opinion. 

Work is a quantity that is associated with the process; it describes the
energy transferred in the process. It is NOT a quantity that is associated
with the body or the system. It does not exist independently of the process
(as many of the quantities listed - viscosity,temperature, reflectivity -
do).
Brian McInnes