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Re: [Phys-l] teaching energy




Jeffrey,

Interesting point, and thanks for pointing this out.

|
| In (1), an object consists of systems, whereas in (2), a
| system consists of objects. I find the definition in (2) to
| be closer to the thermodynamics concept of a system and that
| the definition in (1) amounts to a workaround to avoid
| associating the different ways in which energy manifests
| itself with different "forms" of energy. It would seem that
| the definition in (1) would cause unnecessary confusion in
| the study of thermodynamics.
|

Definition (1) does seem a bit opposite to the ordinary notion of
system, my recent posts have been more or less assuming definition (2).