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Re: no thermal energy

At 07:14 AM 10/29/99 -0800, John Mallinckrodt wrote:

... is why I don't like the phrase "thermal energy." In my view there is
only "internal energy" and bulk translational kinetic energy. Internal
energy includes everything but the three translational degrees of freedom.

Hmmm. I wish you'd said so earlier. I wouldn't have bothered you with all
this email. Not accepting "thermal energy" is tantamount to not accepting
"entropy" and/or "temperature".

I feel like I've spent the last week "explaining" the hot July weather
without realizing that my interlocutor was in Australia.

If your viewpoint can't accomodate the notion of "thermal energy" then we
have no basis for agreement about the main aspects of friction, and hardly
any basis for communication.

It's time to move on. I will just add this to the list of innnnteresting
ideas I've seen passionately defended on phys-l --- ideas so foreign to
physics as I know it that I cannot accomodate them.

______________________________________________________________
copyright (C) 1999 John S. Denker jsd@monmouth.com