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Re: Is it necessary or helpful to teach work (W) in introductory HSphysics? (long)



Daniel Price asked:
>
> how important is the topic of work to a
> solid understanding of basic physics?

Essential. The only way to understand the concept of "energy" is to
understand what changes the level of energy in a system. If your students
don't understand the connection between work and energy -- the integral of
N2 -- they will never understand the concept of energy -- at the very least
they will have "energy" mindlessly flowing about the way physics did a
century ago.

Now if your goal is to teach century old cumbersome stogy physics, then
ignore "work"

Just little me over here in my corner of the galaxy.

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