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Re: The sign of work




Should we adopt the chemistry convention or stick with the
physics-engineering convention? It appears this decision is being made
by the AP Physics Development Committee. Any comments?

Gene Mosca

I my very humble (sometimes) opinion, physics should not follow -- it
should lead! But we should be consistent: The work/energy principle says
that the work done on a system will increase the KE of the system. In
thermo we should use the same concepts: work done (and heat done -- sorry,
the blue pixie made me do it) on a system should be said to increase the
internal energy.

And let chemistry and engineering follow _us_.

Jim Green
mailto:JMGreen@sisna.com
http://users.sisna.com/jmgreen