Re: HEAT1=HEAT2 ?

[LUDWIK KOWALSKI <kowalskil@alpha.montclair.edu>]

On Thu, 28 Aug 1997 Jim Green <JMGreen@sisna.com> wrote:

> .... if you can tell me clearly and definitively what the terms below 
> mean to *you* *without* using the word "heat", then I will adopt your 
> usage and publicly recant.  Pick one or two for a start.

     >> Heat, heat capacity, heat engine, heat of combustion, heat of 
     >> vaporization, heat of fusion, heat pump, heat exchanger, ....  

1) Heat = something that may result in a change of temperature, or in 
          melting of ice.
2) Heat capacity = amount of that something which is needed to change
          the temperature of an object by one degree.
3) Heat engine = a device which does work by taking in more of that staff 
          at a higher temperature and releases less of it at a lower temp.
4) heat of combusion = amount of that staff produced in a chemical 
           reaction, such as wood burning.

Am I doing all this clearly and definitely? Certainly not. For this I
must understand that heat is a form of energy (if you allow me to be
a traditionalist and to rename Q in the first law). Using the word heat
instead of internal energy was only the first step (in a spiral approach) 
toward understanding. 
                                                        Ludwik Kowalski