sophiecentaur
Science Advisor
Homework Helper
- 30,374
- 7,466
This thread never seems to get anywhere. The only bit of useful sense to be injected lately has been the introduction of the notion of efficiency. It 'explains' the apparent paradox of the rockets and it is the nub of the weightlifter's muscles problem. Weightlifting has zero efficiency because there is no gain in GPE when the guy has finished. So much of the chat seems to have ignored the non-connection between work done and energy put in and, instead, tried to coax some sort of Law out of the process by relating non related terms and even non-terms.
Muscles are not springs or bridges. They are actually more like rockets because their efficiency depends upon movement. A sagging muscle is very much like using retro rockets to land. A lot of energy is used up despite a decrease in GPE.