Re: [Phys-L] heat content

[Paul Lulai <plulai@stanthony.k12.mn.us>]

I do think it is helpful to make students aware that a word has multiple meanings and we will attempt to use this definition...
Otherwise students will use heat to mean thermal energy, temperature, how much energy is transferred, and who knows what else.  The more meanings the one word has in a class, the less clear it is and the less yhe students understand it.
Even when things have a common use meaning outside of class, it is worth the taking the time to get students to understand the scientific meaning of the term. Imagine the trouble we would have if we nonchalantly dismissed getting students to understand the ohysicd meaning of work...
My opinion anyway.


.:. Sent from a touchscreen .:.
                 Paul Lulai



-------- Original message --------
From: Richard Tarara
Date:02/08/2014 9:40 AM (GMT-06:00)
To: Phys-L@Phys-L.org,Paul Lulai
Subject: Re: [Phys-L] heat content

John Denker wrote:
>    So it is in our time.  The whole idea of "heat" is as dead as
>    phlogiston.  "Heat" needs to be replaced by two ideas, namely
>    energy and entropy.  Trying to quantify the "heat" is a fool's
>    errand.  Don't do it.  Quantify the energy and entropy instead.
>
> BTW this is one more nail in the coffin, as if any were needed,
> demonstrating that you can't believe what you read in the PER
> literature.  I'm referring to the holy wars over how "heat"
> supposedly "must" be defined ... plus long, detailed disquisitions
> on how to explain irreversibility in terms of energy, et cetera.
> People who have some understanding of the actual subject matter
> hold their noses and run away screaming.

Keeping a flood of comments short here--crusades about the definition of
heat or whether to totally eliminate 'heat' from the vocabulary may be
fine within the scientific community (primarily the 'ivory towers' of
academia)
but pretty much useless to the vast majority.  Teaching an 'Energy for
the 21st Century' class for general education (non-science, questionable
math skill) students, I would NEVER take JD's approach.  Science,
physics in particular, is VERY abstract to most people.  Attempts to
make it more abstract and more mathematical rather than tying the
fundamentals back to personal experience would be, IMO, the fools
errand.  For example, heat (staying warm) and motion (driving their
cars) are two separate experiences and while a physics class can relate
the two experiences (mine does), for most they will never merge completely.

As always, be very aware of the audience you want to 'educate'.

rwt

-- Richard Tarara
Professor of Physics
Saint Mary's College
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www.saintmarys.edu/~rtarara/software.html<http://www.saintmarys.edu/~rtarara/software.html>
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