Re: irreversible lifting

[brian whatcott <inet@INTELLISYS.NET>]

At 18:12 11/1/99 -0500, John Denker wrote:
> ...
> Real dissipation involves things like friction.  Frictional dissipation
> (per unit work) can be reduced (a) by using good bearings and (b) by doing
> things slowly.  So minimum dissipation in favorable cases comes down to a
> question of how slowly you can do things.

Actually this is incorrect. When *you* are involved, there is an
irreducible muscular inefficiency which swamps the small energy
expenditures associated with excellent bearings run slowly.

( This is John M's point - which seems to be struggling with the
list's propensity for fairy tales ..er.. I mean ideal gedanken
 experiments   :-)

Better by far to stay with John D's impersonal motions of the
celestial spheres: there only tides and impacts are germane.

Sincerely

brian whatcott <inet@intellisys.net>
Altus OK