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substance-like flows



There are two questions going on in the same thread: (i) flows of substances
and (ii) nomenclature for Q and U. The outcome of the first question
influences the second because how we name things depends on how we conceive
them.

Re: Flows of Substances

There are educators who advocate the use of flow of a substance as a MODEL
for teaching all of physics. In August at the Ljubljana conference of the
GIREP (see http://www.pef.uni-lj.si/~girep) I heard again from Friedrich
Hermann about the Karlsruher Physics Course (which I ascertained has NOT
been translated into English). This is a very innovative way of teaching
physics to children, throwing out concepts considered to be fossils and
unifying the approach across all topics in terms of flows of substance-like
quantities. (You may object, as someone did at Hermann's lecture,
that"substances" are the biggest fossil of all, but that's what the
discussion is about).l In thermodynamics, by the way, the approach is of the
flow of entropy, energy flows being found in all areas. You can find more
about the Karksruher Course in the abstracts posted at the website
mentioned: under General Talks there is one entitled The Karlsruher Physics
Course, and again the same title under Workshops, while under Panel Sessions
"The Electronium Model in Atomic Physics" and "Energy Currents and Data
Currents" also deal with the KPC.

....and to emphasise that these "substances" are always models:

Emilio O. Roxin writes...
.................................... In electricty we have a similar
situation: when
dealing with electric current EVERYTHING HAPPENS AS IF the electricity
would be some fluid flowing through conducting materials, from the
places of higher potential to lower potential. So you avoided telling
any lies!

....but then not long after teaching them this you'd be telling them that
charge is a PROPERTY of certain elementary particles, and not really like a
fluid at all.

I'd better make the nomenclature question a separate posting.

Mark.

Mark Sylvester
UWCAd, Duino, Trieste, Italy.