I try to aid my understanding of physics principles by figuring out appropiate analogies, or qualitatively picturing the 'what is going on' in an intuitive sense.
Obviously this isn't always possible; certain theories being notoriously unintuitive. But classical mechanics usually falls into the intuitive camp.
However, I'm having trouble gaining a 'what is actually happening' picture of the relationship between energy, force and speed. Now I understand the derivations of kinetic energy, the work-energy theorem, and power, etc - it's just the 'picture' I can't get.
As an example, I can't 'see' what is happening to the motive force as an engine revs faster. Assuming a constant power engine, as a car accelerates it's velocity increases and so the motive force decreases. However, I can't 'picture' why. I understand the maths and I can see why this is mathematically true. I just can't visualise why from a physical point of view.
Can anyone give a physical description of the decrease?
2007-02-28
00:42:39
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4 answers
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asked by
Andy G
1
in
Physics