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Re: [Phys-l] internal/external conservative/nonconservative forces!?!?



On Dec 15, 2010, at 11:22 AM, John Clement wrote:

... As to conservative and
non-conservative forces, that is a fairly destructive nomenclature. ...

Yes indeed. The term "potential force" would probably be better than "conservative force." But the word "potential" has another meaning, as in potential customer, etc. As someone stated earlier, we are prisoners of language. I think this came up was causality was discussed. What does the verb "to prove," (in John C.'s first sentence) means in physics. Yes, I know what it means in mathematics.

Ludwik

http://csam.montclair.edu/~kowalski/life/intro.html