Heat and temperature

Thermal and heating phenomena are part of the physical phenomena which we meet in our daily lives. We know that Heat and Temperature are nouns which are part of everyday language and that they are rarely used in a scientifically correct manner. They are frequently identified or used in circular definitions in which one refers directly to the other as a synonym. This is the mistake which is made when we say that the temperature measures "how hot it is", or when a person who has a fever is said to "be hot", etc..

At other times heat is identified with some material ingredient of bodies. This is why we close the windows "so that the heat doesn't escape", or calories are used as a measure of the undesireable supply of matter, "the fattening part", of the foods which people eat.

The contents of this Teaching Unit deal with the most elemental thermal and heating phenomena, defining the fundamental concepts which will permit us both to correctly describe these phenomena and to make qualitative predictions about their development.

The next control takes us to the objectives of the unit.