Re: why pseudowork (NOT)

[Richard Tarara <rtarara@SAINTMARYS.EDU>]

> > (but by what?).  But I can't imagine how such a collision could happen.
>
> I still don't understand the difficulty.  This is nothing more than a very
> ordinary inelastic collision.
>
> John Mallinckrodt      mailto:ajm@csupomona.edu
> Cal Poly Pomona          http://www.csupomona.edu/~ajm

Well I still can't imagine how to accomplish such a collision in real life.
Sure you can make up such a problem and put it at the end of the chapter,
but this is just the kind of thing to which I thought Leigh has been
objecting (despite his 'nasty' note on this)--problems with no meaning.  If
someone can explain a simple mechanism for such a collision, I'll slink away
quietly.  ;-(

Better, I think, you should have the two blocks stick together.  You end up
with negative work done on each (via the previously used work/energy
theorem), but at least there is some kind of 'real' coupling mechanism that
we could examine in terms of the various work definitions and work/energy
theorems to see how the different views would interpret the collision.

Rick