In a short letter (see URL below), I ask the question why distinguish
work from heat in thermodynamic processes? I come up with two
reasons, both of them fairly limited (to reversible processes and
special kinds of irreversible processes only). (Conceivably one can
come up with one more use, namely to help interpret certain terms
that arise in statistical mechanics, but that's only useful for
identification not calculation purposes.)
I wonder if anyone can come up with any reasons I may have missed?
Curious minds want to know. -Carl