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At 12:50 PM -0400 9/18/01, John S. Denker wrote:
We are starting to achieve some clarity.
I agree. Thanks for the continued patience.
There are many cases where it is fine to talk about energy change. Indeed
I can define flow in terms of change, plus some additional concepts:
Flow means that any positive change in a given region is
balanced by a simultaneous negative change in an adjacent region.
In more detail:
Flow of quantity X means that any increase in quantity X
in a given region is balanced by a simultaneous decrease
in quantity X in an adjacent region.
That's what flow means. That all it means. That is what it has always meant.
Flow = change + balance + simultaneity + adjacency.
John, I would be interested in knowing if you tell your students that this
is what "flow" means, or does the word "flow" conjure up the movement of
_stuff_ in their minds?
We certainly have many instances where words in ordinary street
conversation don't mean exactly what they do in physics, I just never
realized that "flow" was one of them.
Thanks,
Larry
P.S. I would also like protagonists on both sides of this debate to tell me
what light is. Thanks.