Re: Thermodynamics essay

["RAUBER, JOEL" <JOEL_RAUBER@SDSTATE.EDU>]

John,

Thanks for the good synopsis.

> Joel R, on the other hand, seems to be a bit of a fence straddler
> as hinted at in his statement:
>
> > E.g. 3 units of energy are transfered from system A in
> thermal form and
> > arrive at B in nonthermal form.
> >
> > Then Delta E = +3 and W = 0 and Q =+3, the structure allowed it.
>
> This would seem to indicate that, for Joel R, the "transfer" is Q
> if the energy *started out* in "thermal form" regardless of how it
> ended up.

I'm perhaps straddling more than you think.  I did not intend my example to
imply the energy started out in thermal form.  I intended to say that the 3
units of energy were transferred in a thermal manner (hard to know of course
as you point out.)

And therefore the structure can handle the 4 (and maybe, but I'll need think
on it, John's 5th case).

I think I'm suggesting that the L.H.S. (Delta E) Describes the sum of energy
forms in the receiving system, and the R.H.S. describes the forms of the
transfer.  It strikes me that this includes and handles all 4 or 5 cases.

Admittedly,It doesn't differentiate as to what forms the energy has when it
is finally in the receiving system, but for the structure to handle the
cases it is not required to do so.

I wonder if this failure to differentiate the final forms is what John D.
means when he says the structure doesn't handle certain cases?  But I need
to read the most current versions of John D.'s monographs.

Interesting!

Joel R.