Chronology Current Month Current Thread Current Date
[Year List] [Month List (current year)] [Date Index] [Thread Index] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Date Prev] [Date Next]

Re: Question about light and heat




She asked if light and heat were the same thing since they were both =
energy. Light energy would be like a photon and heat is internal energy.

My instinct says they are the same but I don't think that is right. =
But I can't seem to put my finger on why though.

1) "Heat" is NOT energy even if one erroneously wants to thin of "heat" as
a substance. There is no such "thing" as "heat" -- "heat" is done on a
system not pored into it.

2) If anyone had the foggiest idea of what "light" _is_, we could attempt
an answer to this part of the question. If one is to _model_ light either
as a stream of photons or as a wriggly substance, there is still no
comparison between "light" and "heat". But to refer to "light" as "energy"
is pedagogically a big mistake even if someone here wanted to invent a
viable meaning for such an expression.

Now if one wants to return to the days of Aristotle or even Carnot et al,
then maybe the question makes sense -- no, there wouldn't be any photons then.

Just little me over here in my corner of the galaxy.

Jim Green
mailto:JMGreen@sisna.com
http://users.sisna.com/jmgreen