Re: Bernouli formula

[Bob Sciamanda <trebor@VELOCITY.NET>]

The Mechanical WE theorem does not introduce PE as anything "belonging" to
anybody.  It is merely a function whose negative gradient gives a
(conservative) force affecting an object - it is also a part of a
numerical constant of the object's motion.  It is only a calculational
tool and should not be reified.
A force is indeed a relation between two (interacting) objects - we employ
it to calculate the acceleration of either one, without reifying it into
something "belonging" to someone.  The potential energy function is just a
calculational variant of this procedure - nothing more.

> it ignores the work done on the
> system by one of the external forces, namely gravity.  Instead, it
> treats that work by *pretending* that the potential energy the
> system shares with the Earth belongs exclusively to the system.
>
> I'm not saying that the answer is wrong, of course, but here are
> two other (I would argue, more proper) ways of deriving it:

Bob Sciamanda (W3NLV)
Physics, Edinboro Univ of PA (em)
trebor@velocity.net
http://www.velocity.net/~trebor
----- Original Message -----
From: "John Mallinckrodt" <ajmallinckro@CSUPOMONA.EDU>
To: <PHYS-L@lists.nau.edu>
Sent: Friday, November 16, 2001 8:44 AM
Subject: Re: Bernouli formula