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Re: Energy before work" (was work done by friction)



I tried to start this thread several times (after being exposed
to the idea of teaching energy before work at the modeling
workshop in Arizona, years ago) but nobody responded.
Is it possible, and desirable, to introduce the concept of
energy before the concept of work? Leigh goes one step
further, if I understand him correctly, and suggests the
total elimination of the concept of work.

Traditionally --> W=F*d and energy, loosly speaking,
is the "ability to do work" or (even more loosly) it is
"the preserved work". Work is done on an ideal spring
now and that spring does the same amount of work later.
How could energy be introduced after the concept of
work is eliminated?
Ludwik Kowalski

Leigh Palmer wrote:

This topic seems to be generating a lot of heat by friction among
the discussants. I offer the modest suggestion that what work is
is relatively unimportant, a matter of taxonomy at best. If one
looks at a particular transformation a system undergoes and asks
"What are the initial and final energies of A and B?" instead of
"How much work does A do on B?", is the question of what to name
the agent of change operating in the system really physical? I
can't think of a situation in which knowing how to classify such
a process really matters.