Recent content by misterpugsly

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    Sign Convention for Work Done by Varying Force

    Thanks, Tanya, that does clarify things for me. I appreciate your time, and the time of all those that commented.
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    Sign Convention for Work Done by Varying Force

    Tanya is hitting the nail I'm driving at on the head here. I can't see why the work doesn't turn out positive like Fs cos (theta) says it should. F is a vector in the -x direction; it ought to be -5i, not 5i. The same with dx; it's a vector, and if I am going along a path from x=4 to x=0...
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    Sign Convention for Work Done by Varying Force

    I am trying to find the work done on a particle when a varying force acts on it. I am familiar with W = ∫F dot ds but am running into a sign question. Suppose a particle is moving in the -x direction because a force is acting on in that direction. Suppose it moves from x = 4 to x = 0, and...
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    High school physics teacher seeking slide rules

    As far as why I bother, let me quote the wiki article on slide rules: "The spatial, manual operation of slide rules cultivates in the user an intuition for numerical relationships and scale that people who have used only digital calculators often lack.[21] Since users must explicitly...
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    High school physics teacher seeking slide rules

    Hiya folks, In an effort to get the students in my Advanced Physics class to rely less on calculators and to develop their math skills, I am going to give them the option of using slide rules this year. I am offering them a small bonus on tests if they use slide rules instead of calculators...
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