Re: [Phys-l] Equations again

[JMGreen <jmgreen@sisna.com>]

I realize that the following questions are not nearly as 
sophisticated as the current thread, but a reply or two would be very 
helpful.   In the work/energy theorem, W=delta E, should W be thought 
of as energy per se?

And note the following:

At 04:04 PM 4/29/2006, I wrote:
> A colleague belatedly supplies an example of what I was trying to address:
>
>  From the Wikipedia article "Conservation-of-Energy:"
>
> "...For a thermodynamic system with a fixed number of particles, the
> first law of thermodynamics may be stated as: (sic)
> dbarQ = dU + dbarW, or equivalently, dU = dbarQ - dbarW, where dbarQ
> is the amount of energy added to the system by a heating process,
> dbarW is the amount of energy lost by the system due to work done by
> the system on its surroundings and dU is the increase in the internal
> energy of the system...."  (punctuation sic with dbar replacing the
> symbol used)
>
> Now, folks, Q and W are energy???
>
> Hence, the original question: in F=ma does your brain think of F as
> force or as acceleration?
>
> In an equation is each side of the equation thought of as having
> identical dimensions?
>
> Jim