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Re: law of conservation



-----Original Message-----
From: William Beaty <billb@eskimo.com>
To: phys-l@atlantis.uwf.edu <phys-l@atlantis.uwf.edu>
Date: Friday, July 03, 1998 2:30 AM
Subject: Re: law of conservation


. . .I thought that conserved quantites (energy)
had some significatly different properties than non-conserved quantities
(velocity.) . . .

Bill,
This statement may be vague enough to be true, depending on just what is
meant by "significantly different properties". Can you be specific as to
just what other connotations you necessarily include in the word
"conserved"?

(We are going to the heart of grave, unspoken misconceptions which our
teaching language fosters - we are wont to speak of energy as if it were
a tangible "thing".)

Bob Sciamanda
Physics, Edinboro Univ of PA (ret)
trebor@velocity.net
http://www.velocity.net/~trebor