heat, centrifugal force, etc.

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

Herbert H Gottlieb wrote:

> *** If heat is  not energy, what is it? Is it molecular motions ... or is
> it an electro-magnetic radiation?
> *** Is light "energy"? Is it photon transfers ....... or is it an
> electromagnetic radiation?
> *** Is electricity "energy"? Or is it electron transfers???
>
> Which encyclopedias, textbooks and members of
> this list-serv network (if any) are to be believed ?

On the topic of terminology in general:

Your choice of terminology depends on
 -- who you trust, and also
 -- who you want to communicate with.

Also, as I have said before, I consider terminology
to be secondary -- a means to an end.  The goal is
to be able to think and communicate clearly.  If
good ideas are clearly expressed in non-standard
terminology, that's OK with me.  If wrong ideas are
expressed, that's not OK -- but the terminology
may or may not be the problem.  Fixing the
terminology may help, but it isn't strictly necessary
and it is usually far from sufficient.

====

On the topic of heat:

I have a number of friends who have designed and
built refrigerators.  From scratch.  By scratch I
mean things like making your own heat exchangers
out of sintered copper, starting with copper powder,
and bolting things together with copper bolts that
you made yourself starting with a piece of copper
bar, using O-rings you made yourself starting with
fine gold wire.  We're talking about serious
refrigerators, capable of getting down to milliKelvin
or microKelvin temperatures.

As you might imagine, these folks know a thing or
two about what heat is.  If you try to tell them
"heat is not a form of energy" you're gonna get
laughed at.

The people who actually deal with heat on a daily
basis, including the blue-collar HVAC folks as
well as the physics research folks -- they do just
fine thinking of heat as thermal energy. There is
a small clique of pedants who have tried to change
the meaning of the word, but they have failed.
It's over.  Don't worry about it.

Note (!) that deviant definitions of heat are usually
associated with more-significant misconceptions about
the principles of thermodynamics.
  http://www.monmouth.com/~jsd/physics/thermo-laws.htm#sec-eschew-w+q

Note that when we say "heat is a form of energy" it
is like saying "diamond is a form of carbon".  Some
diamonds are more valuable than other diamonds,
depending on details other than the amount of carbon.
Similarly, some heat is more valuable than other heat,
depending on details other than the amount of energy
... even though the narrow question of "how much heat"
is always answered using energy units.

===================

Tangentially related remark:  There are other
topics, not just "heat", where silly ideas are
foisted on kids in high-school physics class.
Another example that leaps to mind is centrifugal
force.  There seems to be a cabal of high-school
textbook writers who say "there is no such thing
as centrifugal force".  Give me a break!  Most
kids know quite well that centrifugal force exists;
they learn this first-hand before they get to
kindergarten, based on their experience with
playground merry-go-rounds.
  http://www.monmouth.com/~jsd/how/htm/motion.html#sec-centrifuge