"heat" is a bad word

["Robert J. Beichner" <beichner@NCSU.EDU>]

If you check the 5th edition of Serway & Beichner, you'll find that heat is
basically treated as a process, in effect, as a verb. "Heat is the transfer
of energy from one object to another object as a result of a difference in
temperature between the two." pg 581. You can <I>heat</I> an object and
increase its internal energy. Chapter 20 relates the difference between heat
and internal energy to the difference between work and mechanical energy.
You don't talk about the work <I>of</I> a system, just as you shouldn't talk
about the heat of a system.

This was a substantial change from the 4th edition, where heat could refer
to either thermal energy or thermal energy transfer. I think you are just
asking for confusion when you do that.

By the way, I'm no longer involved with that project and won't be a
co-author on the 6th edition. Thanks to those of you that have been sending
me comments/error reports. (You should now send them to Brooks/Cole
Publishing.) On a monster project like that, careful reviews by critical
eyes are extremely helpful.

Bob Beichner

PS  Sorry for the use of html tags for italicizing words. It just seemed
like any easy way to emphasize the point. Who knows, some e-mail software
might even interpret it correctly!
------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Date:    Wed, 1 May 2002 12:34:00 -0500
> From:    Rick Tarara <rtarara@SAINTMARYS.EDU>
> Subject: Re: Question about light and heat
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Tina Fanetti" <FanettT@QUEST.WITCC.CC.IA.US>
> > HUH?
> > I am looking in Halliday, Resineck and Walker and it says that heat is
> transferred internal energy.  Is this not saying heat is energy?
> > Its is in 5th edition page 461, 2nd column
> >
> > Tina
>
>
> Tina, you haven't been around here long enough to know that there is an
> ongoing crusade by Jim Green (and he _does_ have followers) to ban the word
> 'heat' used as a noun from the English language (and I suspect to ban most
> other uses of the word as well).  His reasons are reasonably well founded in
> thermodynamics.  He also is very concerned that students end up with a
> 'fluid model' when the language is used.  However, as you have discovered,
> most intro-physics texts and I suspect most people on this list, don't go
> along.  Heat as a synonym for thermal energy is just too much a part of
> common usage to try and abandon, and many of us feel that the pedagogical
> gain, especially with students who will NEVER see a thermo book in their
> lives, is just not worth it.  Jim will continue his crusade periodically and
> you can join him or ignore him as you wish, but that's what this is about.
>
> Rick