Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Efficiency

Activities

The previous two activities in this module have shown us the importance of conservation laws. These laws provide extra “tools” that allow us to analyze certain aspects of physical systems and to be able to predict the motion of objects in the systems without using more complicated analysis. Even in situations wherein we cannot exactly solve the motion, these laws are incredibly useful. For instance, if someone shows us an incredibly complicated device that can seemingly produce electricity with no energy input whatsoever, we know not to invest money in this device, as it must be a sham since it …