Chronology Current Month Current Thread Current Date
[Year List] [Month List (current year)] [Date Index] [Thread Index] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Date Prev] [Date Next]

Re: Impulse



Okay
I highly doubt my students know or care what a Reimann integral is.

Tina Fanetti
Physics Instructor
Western Iowa Technical Community College
4647 Stone Ave
Sioux City IA 51102
712-274-8733 ext 1429

"John S. Denker" <jsd@MONMOUTH.COM> 10/30/01 12:59PM >>>
I wrote:
impulse = time interval * average force during that interval

Then at 01:17 PM 10/30/01 -0500, Bob Sciamanda wrote:
Since the (time) average force is defined using the integral of Fdt, this
is circular.

Picky, picky. So replace "average" by "typical" force during the interval.

(Note that if we don't have a notion of "typical" over short intervals then
we can't define the Reimann integral, so we don't have an "average" either.)