Exemplified by gravity but not friction, name this type of force whose work is path-independent.
This term describes systems for which the Euler-Lagrange equation reduces to Newton's second law, and Helmholtz's theorem decomposes any force field into a solenoidal one and one with this property. The line integral around a closed loop is zero for this type of force, whose fields are irrotational, which means their curl is zero. These forces can be represented as the gradients of potential energy functions. Exemplified by gravity but not friction, name this type of force whose work is path-independent.
This term describes systems for which the Euler-Lagrange equation reduces to Newton's second law, and Helmholtz's theorem decomposes any force field into a solenoidal one and one with this property.
{conservative forces} [accept conservative (force) fields; accept conservative vector fields; accept irrotational fields before “irrotational”; accept curl-free or other answers logically equivalent to having zero curl before “irrotational”]