Re: Thermal Energy - thermalization of rotational energy

[Bob Sciamanda <trebor@VELOCITY.NET>]

From: "Jim Green" <JMGreen@SISNA.COM>
>  . .
> Further, classical thermodynamics concerns only systems which have
> "relaxed" and the corresponding energy is usually called "internal
energy"
> -- why invent a new term?

It's a different "ratio divisionis".  Internal vs non-internal is a
different taxonomy than thermalized vs non-thermalized, certainly in
principle.  Even if the resulting partitions happen to be isomorphic, this
is accidental to the different conceptual distinctions being made.
Do you consider them to always be necessarily isomorphic distinctions?  If
so, is this accidental or is it forced by some logical/physical necessity?
This is perhaps the root question.

Bob Sciamanda (W3NLV)
Physics, Edinboro Univ of PA (em)
trebor@velocity.net
http://www.velocity.net/~trebor