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[Phys-L] Re: work and heat



It's darned useful to engineers and people who worry about engines, air
conditioning, and the like.
Regards,
Jack
formerly and engineer


On Tue, 31 Jan 2006, Carl Mungan wrote:

At the risk of opening a can of worms....

In a short letter (see URL below), I ask the question why distinguish
work from heat in thermodynamic processes? I come up with two
reasons, both of them fairly limited (to reversible processes and
special kinds of irreversible processes only). (Conceivably one can
come up with one more use, namely to help interpret certain terms
that arise in statistical mechanics, but that's only useful for
identification not calculation purposes.)

I wonder if anyone can come up with any reasons I may have missed?
Curious minds want to know. -Carl

http://usna.edu/Users/physics/mungan/Publications/FEd2.html

--
Carl E. Mungan, Asst Prof of Physics 410-293-6680 (O) -3729 (F)
Naval Academy Stop 9c, 572C Holloway Rd, Annapolis MD 21402-5002
mailto:mungan@usna.edu http://usna.edu/Users/physics/mungan/


--
"Trust me. I have a lot of experience at this."
General Custer's unremembered message to his men,
just before leading them into the Little Big Horn Valley
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