-
all the forces are conservative.
-
Now, friction is a little tricky.
-
You might say,
-
"Well, friction is not conservative."
-
But friction is not a microscopic force;
-
friction is a gross, average way to describe things,
-
at some real fundamental level
-
every force is in fact conservative.
-
Anyway, gravity is conservative
-
and then the electrostatic force is conservative also.
-
So, when we study conservative systems,
-
we are studying something fairly general.