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I am going to be teaching this topic to my 11th graders soon.
I have a question about the definition of energy. I know
that the "ability to do work" definition runs into trouble
when you consider heat, engines and 2nd law issues. But what
if I turn the definition around. Instead of saying "energy
is the ability to do work", I want to say:
Work is defined to be the product of force and displacement
(in the same direction). Then, in different contexts, you
can show that work = delta (some quantity). Any such
quantity is referred to as [blank] energy. Fill in the blank
with an adjective that fits the context.
So "energy" is not the ability to do work, but energies are
the quantities that are changed by work.
Does this definition pass muster?