- #1
donaldparida
- 146
- 10
Why do conservative forces conserve mechanical energy while non conservative forces do not?
According to me,
What makes the conservative forces path independent is that for a particular case they always act in a fixed direction irrespective of the direction of motion of the object on which they are acting while non conservative forces change their direction depending on the direction of motion of the object on which they are acting.
Thus in case of conservative forces if an object first moves in the opposite direction of the conservative force "some positive work" is done and then if the object moves in the direction of the conservative force the "some positive work" done before gets neutralized by "some negative work" and for perpendicular motion of the object zero work is done. Thus the potential energy at a point is the same irrespective of the path taken since ultimately the work done is accounted for the change initial and final positions of the object only. Gravitational force is an example of conservative force.
What makes the non-conservative forces path dependent is that for a particular case they always change their direction according to the motion of the object on which they are acting such that the relative orientation of the motion of the object and the non-conservative force remains the same.Thus the work done by the non-conservative forces has the same sign throughout and adds up to give different values of work done for different paths taken unlike conservative force for which the work done which may have different signs in the course of motion which cancel(neutralize each other out). Frictional force is an example of non-conservative force.
Am i correct here?
Are all conservative forces unidirectional while non-conservative forces are multidirectional,i.e., is directionality a measure of whether the forces are conservative or non-conservative?
According to me,
What makes the conservative forces path independent is that for a particular case they always act in a fixed direction irrespective of the direction of motion of the object on which they are acting while non conservative forces change their direction depending on the direction of motion of the object on which they are acting.
Thus in case of conservative forces if an object first moves in the opposite direction of the conservative force "some positive work" is done and then if the object moves in the direction of the conservative force the "some positive work" done before gets neutralized by "some negative work" and for perpendicular motion of the object zero work is done. Thus the potential energy at a point is the same irrespective of the path taken since ultimately the work done is accounted for the change initial and final positions of the object only. Gravitational force is an example of conservative force.
What makes the non-conservative forces path dependent is that for a particular case they always change their direction according to the motion of the object on which they are acting such that the relative orientation of the motion of the object and the non-conservative force remains the same.Thus the work done by the non-conservative forces has the same sign throughout and adds up to give different values of work done for different paths taken unlike conservative force for which the work done which may have different signs in the course of motion which cancel(neutralize each other out). Frictional force is an example of non-conservative force.
Am i correct here?
Are all conservative forces unidirectional while non-conservative forces are multidirectional,i.e., is directionality a measure of whether the forces are conservative or non-conservative?