Mechanical Energy Change in Inertial Reference Frames Saeed Ghanbari, University of Zanjan, Zanjan, Iran
Mechanical Energy Change in Inertial Reference Frames Saeed Ghanbari, University of Zanjan, Zanjan, Iran he mechanical energy change of a system in an iner- reference. In an inertial frame of reference, in the presence of tial frame of reference equals work done by the total nonconservative forces such as frictional, normal, and tension nonconservative force in the same frame. This rela- forces, if the work done by nonconservative forces on a system Ttion is covariant under the Galilean transformations from is zero, the mechanical energy is conserved. The work done inertial frame S to S, where S moves with constant velocity by the same nonconservative forces in another inertial refer- relative to S. In the presence of nonconservative forces, such ence frame may be nonzero. Therefore, in the second frame as normal and tension forces, the mechanical energy of a of reference mechanical energy is not conserved. Considering system can be conserved in S and not be conserved in S. In three examples, we discuss the results. In this work, problems this paper we find useful relations between the mechanical involving rotational kinetic and potential energy changes are energy changes in two inertial frames of reference. not studied. Introduction Covariance of DE = Wnc The fact that the work done by an arbitrary force could According to the work-kinetic energy theorem,5 which is have different values in different inertial frames of reference derived from Newton’s second law, the kinetic energy change is not usually covered in the introductory physics textbooks DK in S frame equals work W done by total force F, and is neither well discussed nor explained in the physics classrooms.
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