Re: Why do we care about heat?

[Jim Green <JMGreen@SISNA.COM>]

> The conventional name of that experiment is "the mechanical equivalent of
> heat".  The notion that the result of this experiment was "not heat" is
> beyond unorthodox.  It's beyond unconventional.  It's bizarre.

Well, John, there is some evidence that _Joule_ thought it was a caloric
substance called "heat", but I hope that after the many intermittent
discussions over the years on this list, we are willing -- nay anxious --
to say "internal energy".  There is also evidence which indicates that
Joule understood this.

I am not saying that many/most textbooks don't teach rather bizarre things
about the First Law.



Jim Green
mailto:JMGreen@sisna.com
http://users.sisna.com/jmgreen