I think that beginners won't see why momentum and energy are both needed and why they are conserved under different conditions. Energy is best explained without mentioning momentum. I used friction to explain energy in another post. Steve Gray ----- Original Message ----- From: "Mike Stay" <mike@math.ucr.edu> To: "math-fun" <math-fun@mailman.xmission.com> Sent: Monday, July 17, 2006 2:04 PM Subject: Re: [math-fun] Another physics question
On 7/17/06, Jason Holt <jason@lunkwill.org> wrote:
What I was really trying to get at is that since momentum is, at least to me, a more intuitive way of understanding energy, why do we teach energy in terms of kilograms accelerated for a distance? And secondarily, what's the formula for converting a moving baseball into an accelerating kilogram, and how can I explain it to people who don't know calculus?
Your accelerating kilogram happens when the pitcher throws the ball: Energy=force applied over a distance and F=ma, so E=m*a*d. So the energy in a baseball is the mass of the baseball times the acceleration (0 to 30 in .5 seconds) times the distance (about one arm's length). -- Mike Stay metaweta@gmail.com http://math.ucr.edu/~mike
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