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Re: Non-conservative forces

On 05/19/2003 07:21 AM, Bob Sciamanda wrote:

It may be useful to speak of conservative SYSTEMS with a wider use of
the term "conservative" (non-dissipative); but "conservative
force/field " is a term with a well established and restricted
mathematical meaning.

We can all agree that "conservative force field" has
a narrower meaning that "conservative system".

Consider again the idealized swing set: The force in
the chain is not a force field at all, so we don't
even get to ask whether it is a conservative force
field or a non-conservative force field.

It still looks to me like a conservative SYSTEM.