>I've managed to avoid the dreaded four letter Anglo-Saxonism except
>for the 'heat shield' term. I don't know what else to call them.
Hmmm. As the saying goes, when all else fails, look at the data. I used
AltaVista to cobble up some statistics on the usage of the dreaded word.
3,023,392 heat
132,736 to heat
57,429 heat exchanger
50,474 heat up
37,229 heat sink or heatsink
25,966 heat loss
22,385 heat wave
21,463 summer heat
17,751 heat flow
15,875 gas heat
11,909 electric heat
11,275 waste heat
10,275 heat stroke
9,908 heat exhaustion
9,818 radiant heat
9,695 heat conduction
9,639 heat produced or heat production
8,637 into heat
7,380 heat shield
6,699 solar heat
5,705 oil heat
3,596 produce heat
3,550 heat storage
3,135 desert heat
2,862 heat content
1,924 retain heat
1,691 conduct heat
819 heat-loving
723 frictional heat
307 heat reservoir
Interpretation of the data:
*) Sometimes the word is used as a verb.
*) Sometimes it is used as a noun.
-- Some of the nouns express the nontechnical meaning,
heat == hotness
-- Some of the nouns express the first technical meaning,
heat == thermal energy
-- Some of the nouns express the second technical meaning,
heat == heatflow == flow of thermal energy due to a temp. diff.
A certain faction has been trying since the late 1930s to establish the
heatflow definition as "the" sole technical definition to the exclusion of
the thermal-energy definition.
However, the data suggests that the attempt to exterminate the original
thermal-energy meaning has failed. The prevalence of terms such as "heat
exchanger", "heat sink", "waste heat", and "heat production" indicate that
lots of people -- even people who know what they're talking about --
continue to use the thermal-energy definition.
Will the heatflow definition ever take over? I tend to doubt it. I
suspect it's like alligators in the NYC sewers -- the niche just isn't
quite right for them. But ya never know....