POSTED SEVERAL DAYS AGO. REPOSTING (the echo did not appear on my screen)
Another old book, another bunch of quotations. I know you have a total
freedom of deleting this message (I do this myself when I am not interested
or when too many massages arrive at a wrong time); otherwise I would not
dare to impose so many messages on you.
Some of you may be amused by quotations (related to our topic) from the
Introductory Applied Physics by N.C. Harris and E.M. Hemmerling, McGraw-
Hill Book Company,1955, 1963, 1972). It is a good old book, in my opinion.
But heat-work-energy vocabulary would be criticized on our list. Except
for what is bracketed, I am quoting the textbbok. Pictures are magnificant
but can not be included.
1. For centuries the greatest potential source of energy available to
man - heat - was unused because .... no method was available for
converting heat into mechanical work.
2. [Rumford] found that heat can be produced infinitely from mechanical
work and therefore suggested that heat was a form of energy. ......
It remained for James Prescott Joule, ....... The conversion of work
into heat is continually going on, since friction is never absent
when work is being done. ... The conversion of mechanical energy into
heat is usually accomplished - in fact, it is inescapable. ...
Converting heat to mechanical work, on the other hand, is not so
easilly accomplished ...
3. When producing heat from mechanical work we can write: W = JH + w,
where W is the mechanical energy input, JH is energy converted to
heat and w is 'wasted' work. ..... The meaning of the first law of
thermodynamics [as applied to a heat engine] can be illustrated by a
schematic diagram [a familiar one, with three arrows Q1, Q2 and W].
[The "applied physics" aspects are very strongly emphasized; the textbook
was written for] colleges, junior colleges, technical institutes, and area
technical schools.
Ludwik Kowalski
P.S. Will I find traces of similar quotations in Sears and Zemansky?
I suspect, yes, but this remains to be seen. Please share similar
observations, we can benefit from each other's efforts.