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Re: symbol for KE



At 11:08 PM -0400 8/23/04, Carl Mungan wrote:

Why do so many upper-level texts insist on using T as a symbol for
KE? This seems to me to already be an overused symbol (for example,
standing for period of oscillation, time of flight, temperature,
tesla, etc) whereas I can't offhand think of any common quantity
represented by K except kelvin (lower-case k is overused, but not
upper-case). I'm thinking of obstinately using K on the board even
though our classical mechanics text uses T, but before I do this, I'd
like to hear any opinions why this might not be a good idea. Thanks,

Personally, I also prefer something other than T for kinetic energy.
I think I could live with K, but E-sub-K seems superior to both. I'm
not passionate about the latter, however.

Hugh
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Hugh Haskell
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<mailto:hhaskell@mindspring.com>

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