Re: heat is a form of energy

[William Beaty <billb@ESKIMO.COM>]

On Wed, 8 Sep 1999, Leigh Palmer wrote:

> Besides the delight you might take in confusing the next generation,

My goal has always been to sow misconceptions and confusion.  You've
finally caught me at it.  Rats.


> why
> would you advocate the continued use of a misleading nomenclature which
> was obsolete two centuries ago? Caloric by any other name is just as
> cognitively flawed.

...and Newton's laws are cognitively flawed because they don't incorporate
relativistic concepts.  They have limited application.  We should stop
using them?

"Heat" works fine as long as we remain extremely aware of its limitations
and of the misconceptions it can breed (no, I myself am not yet totally
aware of these.  I'm still learning thermo and trying to assemble an
intuitive picture of entropy concepts.)

Touch a warm copper block to a cold one.  "Heat" flows.  The "Heat flow"
concept is a useful mental tool. Do you have an alternative set of
concepts which can be understood by students/teachers in the lower grades?
Or should we remove Thermo from curriculum material below the undergrad
level?

I agree that as a mental tool, "heat" is probably too limited to be
extremely useful to scientists.  If "Heat" is a tool like a screwdriver,
then perhaps it is a very specialized one, like the little bitty
screwdrivers which are used to tighten the screws on eyeglasses frames.  A
professional machinist needs a whole set of different screwdrivers.  But
the general public wears glasses, and has a great need for that little
bitty screwdriver which is almost useless for anything else.


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