Re: Potential Energy = "U"?

[DSCHROEDER@cc.weber.edu]

> I don't know but I guess if you want a one-letter handle 
> you need to pick one that is not in use for something else 
> in your calculation.  There are many questions of this 
> kind: Why is S the entropy?  Why is H the enthalpy?  Why is 
> Q the heat?  None of this really seems to have any logical 
> reasoning behind it.  Why are the large and small greek 
> psi's used for the Schroedinger wave functions?

I can't answer most of these but I'm pretty sure that H for enthalpy
comes from heat.  A mixed blessing, at best, but at least there are
*some* situations in which delta-H equals the heat added.

(No flames from those who want to abolish the word heat, please!)

Dan Schroeder