The discussion revolves around a physics problem related to the concept of work and its application in different dimensions, particularly focusing on the x-direction and its relevance to the surface's orientation.
Participants are actively engaging with each other's points, clarifying misunderstandings, and exploring the implications of their assumptions about the surface's shape and orientation. Some guidance has been offered regarding the need to consider the surface's characteristics in their approach.
There is a mention of the complexity introduced by surfaces of varying shapes and orientations, which may affect the attempted solutions. Participants are navigating through the constraints of their assumptions regarding the problem setup.
Do you mean "But it does not seem to work."?Callumnc1 said:
Thanks for your reply @PeroK ! Yes, sorry that was what I meant - I have fixed it now.PeroK said:
What's the relevance of ##x## in this case? Did you understand the book solution?Callumnc1 said:
Thanks for your reply @PeroK ! I thought maybe I could prove it in the x-direction first then extend it to more dimensions. But I guess I should probably use at least the cartesian coordinate system so do it in terms of the displacement vector ds like the solutions.PeroK said:
What if the ##x## direction is normal to the surface?Callumnc1 said:
Thanks for your reply @PeroK ! I guess that means that y-direction will be along the surfacePeroK said:
The surface could be any shape and any orientation. Your attempted solution in general is doomed! Do you see that?Callumnc1 said:
Oh true @PeroK! I forgot that the surface could be any shape! I was assuming that the surface was flat. That would be very hard to account for the shape of the surface doing it my way!! Thank you!PeroK said: