MadSci Network: Physics |
Hi Keith,
the question you are asking is actually quite a fundamental one, and with
this I mean the equivalence of heat and mechanical work.
I would prefer another formulation: Heat is nothing different than
mechanical work - except for one aspect, and this is the direction in which
the motion of molecules occurs, whether they all move in one direction or
all move in different directions.
I want to give you an example - imagine a car braking. Before that event
you have all
particles (atoms/molecules) of the car moving in one direction, that's
quite obvious. What happens if you brake? On the one hand the car stands
still - but what happend to the energy connected to the motion? If you
touch the street or your tyres you can feel that they are quite hot -
because the atoms move quite fast. But now they are moving in all
directions at the same time, so the tyre as a whole stands still.
Do you see the difference? Before you had a concerted motion, all in one
direction, thereafter all the particles are still moving quite quickly, but
in different directions.
If that's not enough, just ask again or have a look at some
physics-resources in the web (like studyweb.com or in the yahho-directory)
Andreas
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