Mission WE5 Conservative and Non-Conservative Forces
Mission WE5 pertains to the concepts of conservative and non-conservative forces and the effect such forces have upon the total mechanical energy when they are doing work. The mission consists of 40 questions organized into 10 Question Groups. You must answer one question from each Question Group to complete the mission. The learning outcomes for this mission are ...
Learning Outcomes
- The student should be able to categorize forces as being conservative or non-conservative and explain the significance of such a categorization scheme.
- The student should be able to predict whether an object's total mechanical energy would be conserved or not conserved based upon the types of forces which are doing work upon the object.
Getting Help
If you are not familiar with this topic, then you should first learn about the topic using our written Tutorial or our Video Tutorial:
- What types of forces are internal (i.e., conservative) and what types are external (i.e., non-conservative)?
- What is the relationship between the type of force doing work and whether or not mechanical energy is conserved?
- How can a description of a physical situation allow one to predict if the total mechanical energy of an object will be conserved?