Re: Why work before energy in texts

[Ludwik Kowalski <kowalskiL@MAIL.MONTCLAIR.EDU>]

Joe Heafner wrote:

> Regarding the chosen reference level, relativistically all potential
> energy must go to zero when the interacting particles are infinitely
> far apart.

I would say the same is true for "mutually interacting particles" in
classical physics. Right?

> This interesting realization is but one of many wonderful and rich
> outcomes of Chabay and Sherwood's superb text entitled "Matter
> & Interactions I" (Wiley, 2002). I've used this text for three year
> now (two preliminary editions and now the first edition). Chapters
> 4-6 in Volume I give the most correct and consistent (with respect
> to correct terminology) treatment of energy methods in print to date.

Can you summarize what is really new, or very different, in these
chapters, in comparison with traditional textbooks? Is the level the
same as in their text "Electric and Magnetic Interactions?" Is the
course in which you use "Matter Interactions" the first physics
course for students who take it?
Ludwik Kowalski