Timeline for Does the potential energy of a system of objects depend on the reference point or the nature of force existing between them?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
10 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Sep 14, 2016 at 0:13 | comment | added | BowlOfRed | If the items were pulled together, they would have KE from the attraction. To create a system with the same particles at rest requires that we remove the KE from them. That can be imagined as us doing negative work on the particles or the particles doing positive work on u. | |
| S Sep 13, 2016 at 19:02 | history | suggested | MrAP | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
fixed grammar
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| Sep 13, 2016 at 18:26 | review | Suggested edits | |||
| S Sep 13, 2016 at 19:02 | |||||
| Sep 13, 2016 at 18:24 | comment | added | MrAP | One more query. The potential energy of a set of particles is defined as the work required to bring them from infinity to their current positions. If the force between the particles is attractive, they do work on their own and no work is done by us. Then how are we doing negative work? | |
| Sep 12, 2016 at 15:13 | comment | added | Paul G | I was just pointing out that the freedom to choose an arbitrary starting point is the same as the freedom to add a constant to the potential. (Because, if somebody chooses a starting point that is different from yours, his work calculations will all differ from yours by a constant.) | |
| Sep 12, 2016 at 9:16 | comment | added | MrAP | I could not understand the last part of your comment. | |
| Sep 11, 2016 at 21:24 | comment | added | Paul G | Yes. And if someone else chooses a different arbitrary point, that's equivalent to adding a constant to your definition. | |
| Sep 11, 2016 at 18:38 | comment | added | MrAP | Can we define the (change in)potential energy set of the particles at particular position as the work required to bring them from any arbitrary point to their current position? | |
| Sep 9, 2016 at 9:16 | vote | accept | MrAP | ||
| Sep 8, 2016 at 22:26 | history | answered | Paul G | CC BY-SA 3.0 |