Not sure I find some of the formatting here to be on point. ‘P(external)’, nor the use of ‘X’ as a multiplier, etc. The intent, overall, though seems reasonable
I like the suggestion and agree I would change x to /cdot. What modification do you think should be made to the Pexternal portion
I don’t really see a way to modify ‘external’. It’s one of those equations that I’ve always seen written alternately as being positive or negative. Unlike, say, gravity, I don’t know that there is a consensus definition of it as being one way or the other
If primary sources uniformly use one or the other that’s one thing, but I think the mathjax looks hideous with ‘P(external)’.
Maybe I’m wrong, but I can’t recall seeing the equation written by specifying internal/external in the formula itself
Agree on the pexternal thing.
Actually a really good point on the way the equation is represented. Since we are taking the -PdeltaV approach should we explain the whole Work done by vs on the system thing? for just our version or both?
Yeah, I think that’s the smarter way to do it. Just accompany a little text beside it.
I can see the argument for why a little explanatory text isn’t super ideal, but imo it’s just the price you pay for having a system where there’s not a naturally defined absolute positive or absolute negative. Arguably, this is true of a ton of reference frames it’s just that we just intuitively choose to make ‘up’ = positive and ‘down’ = negative bc we’re dumb humans.
A line or two, or whatever, in the Extra section I think would do the trick without causing too much consternation. No need to junk up the Text field with all this ‘P(external)’ silliness. There’s a reason you’ve never seen it written that way; it’s silllllyyy
What do you think about just including this table: I think it summarizes everything in this suggestion and gives the correct frame of reference for the equation is a clear way.
Yeah, I think that does the trick as well as anything. Short, sweet, succinct, and clear
Hi @aburns really appreciate the suggestion and we are going to incorporate this information. I created a table summarizing all of this info and will insert them into the two cards for this topic. I’m going to reject your two suggestions on this just to clear them from the queue.