Re: heat is not a noun

[John Barrer <forcejb@YAHOO.COM>]

I agree with Larry. Furthermore, I'd add that "work"
should not be used as a noun, but rather as "workING"
- a macroscopic process by which the internal energy
of a system changes due to the action of an external
force. I think that focusing on system internal energy
and the processes by which it can be changed makes
teaching and understanding thermodynamic processes
VASTLY easier and clearer for students. John Barrere
--- Larry Woolf <larry.woolf@GAT.COM> wrote:
> From "Some Irreverant Thoughts About Heat" in the
> Atmospheric
> Thermodynamics book by Bohren and Albrecht, pages
> 24-28.
>
> "It is very easy to deal with the definition of
> heat: It does not exist.
> Why waste time and effort defining something that
> does not exist? Heating,
> however, is the name of a macroscopic process in
> which the internal energy
> of a system changes by virtue of a temperature
> difference between it and
> its surroundings.  Why 'macroscopic'?  Because we
> invoked temperature, a
> macroscopic quantity.  There is no such thing as the
> temperature of a
> single molecule, only a collection of many
> molecules."
> "When you grasp that heating is a way of doing
> something and abandon all
> attempts to identify heat as an entity, especially a
> vague, metaphysical,
> even paranormal entity, you can think more clearly
> about thermodynamic
> problems.  We know of no examples in which invoking
> a mythical substance
> called heat leads to increased physical
> understanding."
>
>
> > And once again, this list will be drawn into the
> HEAT of battle!
> > (Personally, I'm quite attached to these four
> letter Anglo-Saxonisms)
> > At 7:42 PM -0700 1/30/01, Larry Smith,  you wrote
> about heat is not a noun:
> > > Would it not warm Jim Green's heart to know that
> Robert H. Romer, editor of
> > > AJP has an editorial in the Feb 2001 issue
> entitled "Heat is Not a Noun"?
> > > It starts out: "Let's strike a blow for clear
> thinking by ridding the
> > > English language of the word heat as a noun....
> Heat is not a substance."
> > >
>
> > <http://ojps.aip.org/journal_cgi/dbt?KEY=AJPIAS&Volume=CURVOL&Issue=C
> > > URISS#MAJOR2>
> > >
> > > Larry
> >
> >   -.     .-.     .-.     .-.     .-.     .-.
> .-.     .-.     .-.     .-
> >     \   /   \   /   \ N /   \ C /   \ S /   \ S /
>  \ M /   \   /   \   /
> >      `-'     `-'     `-'     `-'     `-'     `-'
>   `-'     `-'     `-'
> > Chuck Britton
> Education is what is left when
> > britton@ncssm.edu                               you
> have forgotten everything
> > North Carolina School of Science & Math         you
> learned in school.
> > (919) 286-3366  x224
> Albert Einstein,        1936
>
>
> Dr. Lawrence D. Woolf; Phone: (858)-455-4475;
> www.sci-ed-ga.org
> General Atomics; 3550 General Atomics Court; San
> Diego CA 92121-1194


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