Re: Thermodynamics essay

["John S. Denker" <jsd@MONMOUTH.COM>]

At 01:55 PM 10/10/01 -0500, RAUBER, JOEL wrote:

> 3)Energy could leave A in thermal form and arrive at B in nonthermal form.
>
> Delta E = 10
> Q = 10
> W = 0
...
> "Energy could leave A in nonthermal form"  --> that is W
> "Energy could leave A in thermal form"     --> that is Q
>
> And we don't bother to distinguish the form of arrival in B as we lump it
> all together and call it Delta E.

I think Joel is basically on the right track.  If he follows this track
just a little farther, I think he will wind up re-deriving the main points in
 http://www.monmouth.com/~jsd/physics/thermo-laws.htm

In particular, by focusing on A's point of view, he is very close to
applying the first lemma
  http://www.monmouth.com/~jsd/physics/thermo-laws.htm#eq-first-lemma
to A.

The next step will be to apply the same reasoning to B.

The step after that will be to realize that this successfully accounts for
what's going on, but is irremediably inconsistent with the conventional
definitions of W and Q.