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Conservative Force

A force is considered conservative if the work done by the force depends only on the initial and final positions of an object, not the path taken between those positions. Examples of conservative forces include gravity, electrostatic forces, and elastic forces like those from springs. A force is also defined as conservative if the work done in moving an object along a closed path results in zero change in mechanical energy.

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57 views1 page

Conservative Force

A force is considered conservative if the work done by the force depends only on the initial and final positions of an object, not the path taken between those positions. Examples of conservative forces include gravity, electrostatic forces, and elastic forces like those from springs. A force is also defined as conservative if the work done in moving an object along a closed path results in zero change in mechanical energy.

Uploaded by

Anurag Malik
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Conservative force

If the work done by a force depends only on the initial and final states and not on the path taken, then it is a
conservative force.
Examples of conservative force
 force of gravity
 coulomb's force in electrostatics
 the elastic force in a spring

Work done in raising a body against gravity is independent of the path taken. It depends only on the initial
and the final positions of the body i.e. mgh.

A force is conservative (the following definitions are all equivalent):

if it complies with the work-energy theorem: work done equals change in mechanical energy

if the work done is path-independent

if the work done on a closed path is zero: 

if the overall gain or loss of mechanical energy is path-independent

if the overall gain or loss of mechanical energy on a closed path is zero

if the force is a field with a potential (in which case it can be written as minus the gradient
of the potential:  , and so  )

if the force is a field whose curl is zero: 

Extended explanation:

A conservative force is such that- www.assorted4all.tk

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