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Thanks John.
I eventually stopped debating. I think it will come up again.
I was shocked that energy conservation =/= energy is constant
was a one vs the room debate. It seemed like some were slowly
starting to wonder.
Baby steps i guess.
Have a good one, and thanks for the help.
Paul.
.:. Sent from a touchscreen .:.
Paul Lulai
-------- Original message --------
From: John Denker
Date:05/08/2015 6:53 AM (GMT-06:00)
To: Phys-L@Phys-L.org
Subject: Re: [Phys-L] Conservation of Energy vs Constant Energy
On 05/04/2015 07:51 AM, Paul Lulai wrote:
I am in an awkward spot. I am trying to convince a group of hs
physics teachers that energy is always conserved.
Just now I upgraded my screed on this topic.
https://www.av8n.com/physics/conservation-continuity.htm
or equivalently
http://www.av8n.com/physics/conservation-continuity.htm
In particular, I added a new subsection and a couple of new
diagrams to explain why /locality/ is important, and why
locality requires us to think in terms of conservation, not
just constancy.
https://www.av8n.com/physics/conservation-continuity.htm#sec-locality
I also made it somewhat less disorganized and fixed a few
typos. The reasoning can be summarized as follows:
* To be useful, the law must be local. Furthermore,
special relativity says that a non-local law cannot
possibly be correct.
* Locality requires us to consider small systems.
* Small systems are generally not closed.
* Therefore a law that applies only to closed systems
is nowhere near strong enough to be a fundamental
law of physics.
* The fact is, energy is /always/ conserved ... even
in small, open regions where the energy is not constant.
--------------------------------
As a separate matter:
Do folks have authoritative resources I can point to?
Rather than asking for an authoritative reference, they ought
to be asking for convincing evidence.
I know they're not scientists, and you're not going to make
them scientists overnight ... but you can at least remind
them that appeal to authority is risky and unscientific. It
is very, very weak evidence.
https://www.av8n.com/physics/authority.htm
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