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Re: Sans Work, part 1 (Long and wordy)



Leigh wrote:
Your MET is understood. It is evidently correct. It is not
one of the two forms of the work-energy theorem put forth
in Hestenes's text. Can you give us examples of problems
best treated by this approach (the skater is a good one)?
It seems that this theorem is much underexploited because
few problems are posed that are readily solvable using it.
. . .
Leigh

How about an automobile? Although the energy source is the combustion
of fuel, the external frictional force of the roadway on the
momentarily at rest tire footprint is the limiting factor in the
maximum attainable acceleration, given an "all-powerful" engine!

The line integral of the external force is not only a measure
of the CMKE change, it is also a constraint;
its limitations impose a limitation on the CMKE change.

-Bob
Bob Sciamanda sciamanda@edinboro.edu
Dept of Physics sciamanda@worldnet.att.net
Edinboro Univ of PA http://www.edinboro.edu/~sciamanda/home.html