Skip to main content

All Questions

3 votes
1 answer
353 views

Conservative field vs conservative force

For a conservative field (e.g. electrostatic field) the circulation of the field (along a closed line) is zero. For a conservative force (e.g. macroscopic elastic force) the work performed on a ...
Federico Toso's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
12k views

How to prove force is conservative?

How do I prove whether a force perpendicular to the motion is conservative and $\mathbf{F}=\mathbf{F_{0}}\sin(at)$ conservative, where $\mathbf{F_{0}}$ is a constant vector. I knew that for a force ...
147875's user avatar
  • 494
1 vote
3 answers
9k views

Why can't we define a potential energy for a non-conservative force? [closed]

We could define potential energies for non-conservative forces too and then we could conserve it with kinetic and potential energy as we know it. But no one does that. Why is this? Please explain. Any ...
Subhranil Sinha's user avatar
3 votes
1 answer
445 views

Confusion with curl of Lorentz magnetic force

Since the magnetic force is a no work force, $dW=\vec F\cdot d\vec r=0$ for $\vec F(\vec r)=q(\vec v(\vec r) \times \vec B(\vec r))$, therefore $\oint \vec F \cdot d\vec r=0$ by Stoke's theorem. ...
SRS's user avatar
  • 26.7k