Conversation

Is it fair to think of forced action as a negative degree of freedom? Eg you can’t stop breathing. It’s a negative degree of freedom.
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Thinking about whether “overconstrained” is a meaningful state as in “more than fully constrained” … it’s not quite the same as the better posed notion of “overdetermined”
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Replying to
In its narrow usage by structural engineers, it’s extremely useful and important. For people who learn it in that context and then use it figuratively, it can be powerful, but the audience needs some experience with statics etc. or there’s a big risk of subtle misinterpretation.
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