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On Wed, 31 Jan 2001, Larry Woolf wrote:
"When you grasp that heating is a way of doing something and abandon all
attempts to identify heat as an entity, especially a vague, metaphysical,
even paranormal entity, you can think more clearly about thermodynamic
problems. We know of no examples in which invoking a mythical substance
called heat leads to increased physical understanding."
Hmmm. Sounds like a straw man argument. And should we also say that
sound is "not a noun," and neither is light, because there are no mythical
SUBSTANCES called sound or light?
But who insists that "heat" is a substance? Perhaps words are being put
into the mouths of the "heat believers" to make their viewpoint look
foolish. Heat is only "substance-like" in that it is a conserved
quantity in some circumstances.