English has lousy grammar for dealing with processes. They get the same grammatical construction as things and this situation causes confusion. For example, sound is the process for a particular way of moving energy without a net displacement of matter, but it is hard to point to anything and say that's sound.
Valentine's Day reminds me of my favorite process that isn't a thing, and it has led to a famous, but true, cliche: Love is a verb not a noun.
Zeke
----- Original Message ----
From: "carmelo@pacific.net.sg" <carmelo@pacific.net.sg>
To: phys-l@carnot.physics.buffalo.edu
Sent: Sunday, February 10, 2008 12:24:24 AM
Subject: [Phys-l] Heat is a noun
Hi
--
In
Mar
2008
issue
of
The
Physics
Teacher,
John
Jewett
in
“Energy
and
the
Confused
Student
III:
Language”
writes
that
Romer
claims
that
heat
should
not
be
used
as
a
noun.
While
I
agree
with
the
spirit
of
using
the
word
heat
correctly,
I
disagree
that
heat
is
not
a
noun.
Heat
is
indeed
a
noun,
but
it
is
the
name
of
a
process,
not
the
name
of
what
is
transferred.
Although
this
has
been
discussed
in
Phys-L
before,
it
seems
that
there
is
still
no
agreement
on
whether
“Heat
is
a
process”
or
“Heat
is
a
noun”.
Hence,
it
could
be
better
to
write
“Heat
should
be
defined
as
a
process”
or
“Heat
should
be
defined
as
a
noun”.
Actually,
there
are
also
students
who
get
very
confused
when
they
are
taught
that
“Heat
is
not
a
noun”.